


Something Wicked

by Marlon



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Friends to Lovers, M/M, buzzfeed unsolved au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-04 16:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15151436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marlon/pseuds/Marlon
Summary: Kylo and Armitage have been friends since they were kids. Now in university, they run a semi-popular YouTube channel called "London Below" where they investigate all sorts of haunted and paranormal happenings in and around London and try to answer the question, are ghosts real? When they take on the mysterious and tragic case of the Pendle Witches, they come face to face with the spirit world in a way they never have before. Will they make it out of Pendle alive? Are ghosts real? And most importantly, does Armitage return Kylo's affections?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [arwarz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/arwarz/gifts).



> Hello! Here it is, my long-promised BuzzFeed Unsolved au. Think of this story more as inspired by BuzzFeed Unsolved, or a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the show, rather than a straight-up copy of the format. I promised Arwarz I would write this for the Huxloween 2017 event and now here we are, only nine months late! But it happened! Thanks to Christoph for being the first reader and TheKnitterati for some editing and tone pointers :)

SuperbOwl 1 minute ago  
Omg when are they going to kiss already!?!?!?!?!?! #kylux4evr #londonbelow

TrickyValkyrie 5 minutes ago  
Hux looked amazing, where does he get his clothes??!! #londonbelow #kylux4evr

BrooklynBabe 5 minutes ago  
Get a room already omg they love each other so much I can hardly stand it! #londonbelow #kylux #cries

Kylo slams the laptop closed against the flood of responses pouring into the comments section of their YouTube channel. He groans as he thumps his head down on the desk - he has to delete all these comments before Armitage sees them.

His phone chimes irritably then. Kylo cracks an eye open to look at the notification banner, then groans again.

It was Armitage. Of course.

_Let’s go! We’re outside now_

From outside, Armitage blasts the horn a few times then revs the engine of his ancient Vauxhall for good measure. Kylo snorts as he smiles down at the phone.

_Just coming_

Kylo stands, pushing his phone into his jeans pocket. He gathers his laptop and camera equipment from his weathered desk and throws it all jumbled into his sturdy gray knapsack. Grabbing his worn leather jacket from the hook in the hallway and his travel bag from the floor, he clatters outside to the angrily purring car.

\----

“I really think we have to change the name of the channel. We don’t want to get sued by Neil Gaiman’s people, we don’t have money to hire a lawyer.”

“We can’t change the name, what about our brand!”

“Our brand? Listen to yourself, it’s just a youtube channel where we make silly history videos that mostly feature you shrieking in fear in kirkyards.”

“Something touched my arm!”

Rey laughs loudly from the back seat which causes Armitage to smirk. He rolls his eyes fondly in Kylo’s direction. “I’m sure.”

“Something _did_.” Kylo insists, crossing his arms in a huff.

“Alright, if we aren’t going to change the name of the channel, can I at least do my series on the London plague pits? Maybe we can raise the profile with some serious scholarly work.”

Kylo grins at him, huff momentarily forgotten. “Oh, you just want to hog all the camera time for yourself.”

“Well, I’m prettier than you, I’m only giving our fans what they want.”

“If you really wanted to give the fans what they want you’d-” Rey begins, unhelpfully.

“Rey! Oh my god!” Kylo cuts her off before she can ruin everything. Armitage raises an eyebrow and looks askance at Kylo.

He falls silent while Rey giggles. He thinks back to the twitter comments from their followers - he thought he’d done a good job hiding his silly crush on Armitage from the camera, but apparently not.

Armitage taps him on the shoulder, looking concerned. “Kylo, are you alright? You kind of drifted away for a moment.”

“I’m fine.” He looks down to where Armitage’s hand still rests lightly on his shoulder. Armitage squeezes his shoulder once for reassurance then places his hand back on the steering wheel.

The car is quiet as Armitage concentrates on navigating the narrow roads of Marylebone. Kylo’s phone chimes, breaking the silence.

_get over it and ask him out, please, for the sake of my sanity_

Kylo frowns at the screen as he taps out his response.

_It’s not like that!_

_Yeah yeah, sure_

Rey scoffs loudly. Kylo whips around in his seat to glare at her. She plucks her earbuds out with an evil grin.

“Hey, Armitage? Dad wants to know if you’re coming over for dinner on Sunday - Auntie Leia and Han will be back from their cruise by then.”

“Absolutely I am, Luke texted me. We’ll be back from Lancashire by Sunday, right?”

“Should be.” Rey winks at Kylo so he sticks his tongue out at her and slumps back around in his seat. He frowns out the side window at the passing townhouses.

It’s bad enough that the entire internet seems to know about his crush but Rey knowing is actually worse. She’ll needle him about it every chance she gets. His phone chimes again.

_Ky, just tell him, he likes you too, it’ll be fine_

_Maybe_

That earns him a thumbs up emoji and a bunch of symbols that look like confetti and balloons. He smiles at the screen, feeling better, then tosses his phone onto the dashboard to settle in for the four-hour drive to Lancashire. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices Armitage smiling over at him.

“Alright?”

“Yeah, I’m good.”

Armitage smiles again as he turns his eyes to the road. Kylo fiddles with the radio dial and as the comforting prattle of the Radio One presenters fills the car, he watches London fade into the distance as they wing their way north.

\----

Kylo is jolted out of a sound sleep as Armitage jerks the car to a stop at a deserted intersection. He swipes at a thin wisp of drool at the corner of his mouth as he gazes bleary-eyed out the window at the verdant green fields lining the road.

“Where are we?” He snuffles, rubbing at his tired eyes.

“We’re almost to Newchurch-in-Pendle.” Armitage informs him with a nod toward the front windshield. “See.”

Kylo follows his gaze and sees the rather foreboding shape of Pendle Hill sitting like a brooding hen above the valley. The horizon is hazy with an oncoming storm and the green flanks of the hill are dappled with the shadows of the clouds scudding quickly overhead.

“Ugh. I hope it doesn't rain the entire time we’re here.” Rey pipes up from the backseat. “It’s bad for the equipment.”

“Hmm,” Kylo mumbles as he reaches for his phone on the dash. “I get the impression that it’s always a bit rainy here.” 

As Armitage urges the car into motion to turn the corner, Kylo catches sight of a large black shape sitting on a little rise in the field next to the car. It's too far away to really get a good look at and he can’t quite tell what the creature is - either a big dog or maybe a small deer. Or a bear? Are there bears in England? Whatever it is, he doesn’t like the way it seems to track the movement of their car.

“Hey, Rey.” He quickly turns to get her attention. “Look at that-” He turns back to the field but the creature is gone. He scans the field but sees nothing, absolutely no sign to indicate anything was there at all.

“What are you looking at?”

“Nothing,” Kylo cranes his neck to keep his eyes on the field as they fly down the lonely road. “I thought I saw something but I guess not.”

“Well save it for the cameras, whatever it was.” Armitage murmurs, eyes glued to the narrow road. “It’s too early in the day for this nonsense. It’s still light out.”

“Yeah, we can use it for the intro,” Rey adds, making a note on her phone.

The rest of the drive is a quick one. Kylo keeps an eye turned to the fields bordering the road, looking for any sign of the animal. Armitage slows the car down as they enter the tiny collection of buildings that make up Newchurch-in-Pendle.

“Well, isn’t this quaint.” He drawls, navigating the narrow street. 

The old stone buildings perch close to the road, leaning companionably against each other. They pass two people who wave a greeting to the car as it passes them. Although it’s early in the season, some of the homes have pretty, colourful flowers in their window boxes. Armitage quickly glances at the directions on his phone and pilots the car to a stop alongside a white-painted two-story building.

_The Malkin Tower Inn_.

He snorts as he reads the sign, throwing the car into park. He turns to Kylo with a snide smile.

“Nice, I thought we were going to stay at a proper hotel for once.”

“What’s wrong with this place?” Kylo eyes the building. It had been the only place to rent rooms in the hamlet. Lancaster, or even Roughlee, would likely have had more to choose from but those places weren’t as authentic as Pendle. “It looks nice to me.”

“You thought a place called ‘The ‘Shit’ Tower Inn’ sounded nice?”

Rey laughs, punching Kylo in the shoulder as she crawls out of the backseat.

“What are you talking about!”

Kylo follows Rey out of the car. He arches into a deep stretch once on the pavement - Armitage’s tiny car wasn’t well-suited to his six-foot frame. He tugs his shirt down from where it has ridden up, exposing a little strip of skin along his belly. He glances over as Armitage quickly darts his eyes away from Kylo’s midsection.

“You never read my notes to the end.” Armitage glances back at him, fond smile in place. “‘Malkin’ is a slang term in this area for shit.”

“How do you even know that?” Kylo grumbles to himself as he moves around to the back of the car to help Rey unload their bags and gear.

Armitage merely smiles smugly as he picks up his tidy grey duffle bag and struts into the hotel, leaving Kylo to bring in the rest of their equipment. Kylo tries not to stare but he can’t help himself. The swell and bounce of Armitage’s hips and arse as he strides away are mesmerizing. Rey shoves a heavy camera bag into his arms.

“Get it together, coz.” Rey swings her own knapsack onto her shoulders as she follows Armitage, leaving the rest of the luggage for Kylo. She stops a few steps away, turning slowly back to level a suspicious glance his way. “How many rooms did you book?”

“Ah.” Kylo looks down, fidgeting with the strap on the camera bag, not meeting her eyes. “Two.”

She sighs. “You’re just making this harder for yourself, you know.”

“I know. I’ll tell him.” He promises her. Rey shakes her head and spins on her heel, the wooden door of the hotel closing behind her with a heavy thud. 

Kylo exhales heavily as he gazes around the quiet street and then up at the cloud-studded grey sky. The wind has picked up a bit while he’s been standing here and he shivers. Squaring his shoulders, he swings his own knapsack onto his back, gathers up the other bags and locks the doors of the car. His attention is drawn across the street by a raucous cawing and he notices a large dark raven perched on the stone wall that borders the road. The bird hops and dances along the crumbing crenellations of the wall, fixing its bright, gimlet eyes on him. It squawks obnoxiously at him then explodes from the wall in a flurry of beating wings. The raven swoops low over him and he feels the brush of feathers against his hair as it passes. He turns to watch it flap away down the road and to his horror, the large black animal he saw before has reappeared, only now it’s closer, and he can tell it’s an enormous dog. The thing sits quietly in the middle of the street some distance from him, head cocked curiously to the side as if it can’t decide what to make of him.

Kylo fumbles at his pocket, looking for his phone. In his haste, as he yanks the phone out of his pocket, it catches on a fold of fabric and slips from his nerveless hands, clattering to the pavement. He stoops to retrieve it but when he finally gets the camera app open, he finds that the mysterious dog has disappeared again. With shaking hands, he pockets his phone and scoops up the bags then bolts for the safety of the inn. In his desperation to be inside, he practically tears the door from its hinges and then collides headlong into Armitage. They tumble to the ground with a breathless _oof_ punching out of Armitage as Kylo lands on top of him.

“Shit, sorry, sorry.” 

Kylo scrambles backward and leaps to his feet, reaching out a hand for Armitage. Using Kylo for leverage, Armitage climbs to his feet, rubbing at his sternum where the buttons of Kylo’s jacket and straps of his bag had dug in.

“I was just coming to find you.” He wheezes. “You were taking too long and we need your card to check in.”

“Sorry,” Kylo mumbles again. He peeks out the window at the street beyond but sees nothing. He allows Armitage to tug him toward the check-in desk.

The check-in process is quick and the desk attendant is efficient and friendly. She slides two keys towards them.

“Okay, you’re checked in for two rooms for four nights. Ah…” She looks between the three of them, unsure who belongs with whom. “One room is on the second floor, and the other is in the attic.” She looks apologetic about it. “It’s an extra flight of stairs but the room is cozy and has a nice view.”

Rey swipes the key for the second-floor room. “How many beds?”

“Two.” The attendant’s smile wobbles under Rey’s scrutiny. “One in each room.”

“Unbelievable,” Rey grumbles as she stalks away, leaving the bags for Kylo.

“What’s gotten into her?” Armitage asks, one eyebrow arched delicately.

“Not sure.” Kylo mumbles. He calls down the hall at Rey’s retreating figure. “Meet back here in a half hour?”

She waves, in what he assumes is agreement, before skipping up the stairs to her room. Armitage helps Kylo gather the bags, thanking the clerk politely.

“Enjoy your stay in the Lancashire area.” She says doubtfully, as if unsure whether they’ll have a good time or not.

“Thank you. We will,” Armitage replies primly as he sails from the lobby, Kylo bobbing helplessly in his wake.

\----

A half-hour later finds Kylo loitering around the lobby, trying not to obsessively stare out the window. One sighting of the creepy dog was odd, but two is positively eerie. Plus the way the thing had been looking at him like it was studying his face, was weird. Dogs didn’t act like that, he’s sure of it.

He swings his small daypack off his shoulder and checks the contents one last time. The maps and notes, cameras and extra batteries, and his water bottle were all safely stowed. He looks up at the sound of fleet footsteps on the stairs.

Armitage swans into the room. He’s changed from his dapper deep green wool peacoat into an olive-coloured rain cape with a large bowl-like collar and hood. He’s also wearing elegant brown boots that reach up to his mid-calf. Kylo admires the way the boots and his slim black jeans cling to his shapely legs.

Half the tweets and comments they received on their videos were about how their fans wanted them to be together; the other half of the comments were usually about how good Armitage looked in all his clothes. It was true; Kylo gazes over at Armitage from beneath his lashes, still pretending to fiddle with his bag. He looked unfairly gorgeous almost all of the time, even in what was, essentially, a green bin bag.

“What’s with the poncho?” He jokes, trying to cover the flutter in his stomach and voice. “You look like you’re ready to evacuate Dunkirk.”

“There’s a storm rolling in,” Armitage replies airily, completely unphased by Kylo’s teasing. “And it might be muddy out in the fields, I don’t want to ruin my other jacket.”

“I can’t believe you can make a poncho look that good,” Kylo mutters.

“What was that?”

He’s saved from responding by Rey who, with impeccable timing, sweeps into the lobby carrying her own camera bag.

“So I thought I’d head out and get some establishing shots.” She announces. “I’ll meet you guys back here around four and we can film the intro if the weather holds up.”

“Sure, great.” Kylo babbles, blushing when Armitage raises a questioning eyebrow at him. “We’re going to go over to Pendle Hill so… we’ll see you later?”

“Uh-huh.” She responds absently while consulting the maps on her phone. “See you.”

“Be careful, okay.” Kylo squeezes her shoulder to get her attention. “I mean it.”

Something catches in his voice and she looks up, concerned. Her eyes rove over his face, scrutinizing his worried expression.

“You know I always am.” She shoulders her camera bag and then slips her phone into her jacket pocket. “See you in a couple hours.”

They follow her out the door and she waves farewell as she turns and heads off up the deserted high street. Armitage glances up at the fast-moving clouds overhead.

“Looks like the rain will hold off,” He smiles reassuringly to Kylo. “Shall we go?”

Without waiting for Kylo’s reply, Armitage grasps Kylo by the shoulders and steers him towards the waiting car.

\----

Armitage parks the car in the small gravel parking lot at the base of Pendle Hill. After consulting a few local hiking websites, they decide to take the easier, circular route rather than the more direct ascent to the top.

Kylo follows the beckoning tails of Armitage’s ridiculous rain cape along the easy trail through the rolling fields and past a small reservoir. He has his camera out, capturing footage of the grim countryside, still in the grips of late winter. Once the climbing starts in earnest, he stashes his camera away so he can use his hands to scramble up the path.

“This is such lonely countryside,” Armitage calls back to him. “It’s easy to see why the hysteria around witches ran rampant here.”

“I guess.” Kylo wheezes. He needed to start jogging again. “I just don’t see why they would have gone so crazy though.”

Armitage scrambles up and over a tricky bit of the path then helps haul Kylo up beside him. Thankfully, the path then levels off and widens so they can easily walk beside each other for a few yards.

“I think it was a bit of a perfect storm of things.” Armitage smiles over at him ruefully, walking close enough that their shoulders brush. “England was in the grip of enthusiastic Protestantism at this time. But, in Lancashire the people never really gave up their Catholic faith and even by 17th century standards, they were considered wild, rough, and uneducated.” He shrugs. “The timing was just right for an outbreak of witch hysteria, I guess.”

“But what does it matter if people were Catholic or Protestant?”

“You never do your homework.” Armitage shakes his head fondly. “At the time, you better believe it mattered which religion you subscribed to - the official state religion was Protestantism, and everything else was considered idolatry and witchcraft.”

Armitage continues, settling into his lecture. Kylo smiles. He’d never admit it to Armitage because it would inflate his already enormous ego, but he likes to listen to him get all fussy and academic. The lilt and cadence of Armitage’s gentle accent always had a soporific effect on Kylo so he leans into Armitage’s shoulder as they continue their hike up the hill.

“One of the duties of Roger Nowell, the local magistrate, would have been to catch Catholic dissenters and it was just a fluke that he stumbled into this supposed coven of witches. He probably thought it was his lucky day as he’d be able to impress the king and further his career, all in one go.”

“Really? Fuck that guy, then.”

Armitage laughs. “Totally.” He’s quiet for a moment. “So, in 1612, you’ve got a fear of Catholics and witches, zealous magistrates, and judges looking to rehabilitate their reputations and careers-”

“The accused witches never stood a chance?” Kylo interjects.

“Exactly.” Armitage sighs. “They were determined to do things by the book and make those charges stick.”

“Ugh. So it was a case of wrong place, wrong time for them?”

“In a way.”

They walk in silence for a few minutes, both mulling over the misfortunes of the Pendle witches. The path narrows again and Armitage falls back to allow Kylo to lead the way for a bit. They ascend the hill for a time and when they reach a bend in the trail, Kylo leads Armitage over to sit in the lush grass, dotted with early-blooming tiny purple and white flowers.

“Let’s sit for a couple minutes.” He pats the grass beside him. “I don’t think we’ll have time to get to the very top.”

Armitage sinks down beside Kylo with a grateful sigh. He accepts the water bottle from Kylo’s pack, dewy with condensation. He takes a sip then hands it back. Kylo sets up his camera on the short black and white tripod in order to take some time-lapse photos of the valley sprawling out below them. Armitage leans back on his elbows, tipping his face to the overcast sky he idly watches a murmuration of swallows dart back and forth above them while he waits for Kylo to finish his set-up.

“It’s a pretty area, for all its tragic history,” Kylo says as he presses the record button on the camera.

Armitage sits up. He plucks one of the small white daisies from the long grass and tucks it behind Kylo’s ear.

“I suppose.” He glances down to the valley below. “It seems like a weirdly depressed area through, like it never recovered from the trauma of the witch trials.”

Kylo gasps theatrically. “I never thought I’d hear Professor Hux talk about energies so casually.” He clasps his hands over his heart.

Armitage shoves at his shoulder with a grin. “Oh, shut up, you know what I mean.”

“So you wouldn’t want to settle here. Maybe buy a small farm?”

“Maybe when we’re old men in cardigans and reading glasses but I’m not ready for retirement just yet.”

Kylo’s heart trips a beat in his chest. Did Armitage realize what he’d just said? He twiddles the water bottle over and over in his hands, pondering the implications of Armitage’s casual comment.

“You think we’ll still be friends when we’re that old?”

Armitage turns to him with a stricken expression. “You think we won’t be?”

“I do!” Kylo scrambles to recover as a wounded expression blooms across Armitage’s face. “I just figured you’d finish school and then leave to take a teaching position at some fancy school in Paris, or New York, or something.”

“I have no plans to move away.”

“Oh. Good.” Kylo replies faintly, dizzy with the thought of Armitage moving away.

They sit huddled together on the hillside, watching the cloud shadows creep along the valley floor. The wind has picked up to a brisk breeze and the horizon is still hazy with rain so the promised storm could still take them by surprise. Kylo doesn’t fancy being caught out on this exposed hillside in a storm so he nudges Armitage and nods down the hill.

“Should we get going? Rey will have our heads if we’re late to meet her.”

“Sure.”

Armitage yawns, stretching his hands up above his head to work out the kinks in his back and shoulders. He holds his hands out to Kylo who easily pulls him to his feet. Armitage grins up at Kylo as he reaches up to tuck a stray lock of hair behind his ear and adjust the flower so it stays in place. Suddenly his eyes focus on something behind Kylo and he frowns. Kylo whips around to examine the slope behind them.

“Did you see something?”

“Just a passing shadow, I’m sure. Come on.”

He leans down to press pause on the camera’s recording then he scoops it up and begins the long descent down the hill. Kylo glares suspiciously up the path, searching for any signs of the mysterious dog from early. He sees nothing but the tall grass and wildflowers buffeted by the strong wind. From around the bend, Armitage calls to him and with a final scan of the hillside, he hurries to follow.

\----

After their dinner and planning session, Kylo follows Armitage up the narrow stairs to their cozy attic room. Armitage kicks his boots off by the door as he flings his rain cape onto the chair beside the bureau. He flops down onto the wide king bed and groans.

“Who would have thought a place like The Shit Tower Inn would have such luxurious beds.”

“Oh my god, will you please stop calling that,” Kylo grumbles from the desk. “It’s the only place in the area.”

Armitage laughs with delight as he rolls off the bed and crosses the room in two long strides to retrieve his camera from his bag. He brings it over to the desk where Kylo is perched, uploading the footage from his and Rey’s cameras, and sets it down carefully beside Kylo’s well-loved SLR. He pulls over one of the chairs from the small side table and settles in with Kylo to re-watch the day’s footage.

Kylo can’t stop his leg from jigging up and down, the unease from earlier in the day had settled in the pit of his stomach. Armitage places a hand on Kylo’s knee and squeezes gently, and for a few minutes the weight and warmth of Armitage’s hand calms him, but eventually, his leg is bouncing again.

“What’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing.” Kylo mumbles, unplugging his camera and reaching for Armitage’s. “This town gives me the creeps is all.”

“We’ve researched lots of unpleasant things for the channel, what’s different about this?”

Kylo glances over to Armitage. His lovely green eyes are fixed on Kylo and full of concern. He squeezes Kylo’s knee again encouragingly.

“I don’t know, all of it?” Kylo’s gaze drops to Armitage’s slim hand on his leg. “The weather, the way the witch trials have become a tourist attraction, and that weird dog.”

“What dog?”

“I saw this huge black dog in one of the fields today, and then again in town.”

“Well, there are quite a lot of farms around here,” Armitage says sensibly, moving his hand from Kylo’s knee to rest his arm along the back of the chair. “A dog running loose isn’t that strange. It’s probably just some farmer’s dog out to keep an eye on the sheep.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Kylo says vaguely. He knows it wasn’t a coincidence though, not with the way the dog had studied him. He shivers.

“Look, we’ve all had a long day so why don’t you finish up transferring the footage, I’m going to go have a shower, and then we’ll turn in. We have that interview in the morning and I wouldn’t mind driving around to scout some locations.”

“Sure.” Kylo sighs.

He offers a watery smile to Armitage who leans forward slightly as if he would press a kiss to Kylo’s lips. Kylo holds his breath but Armitage only smiles and unfolds himself from the chair. After he digs through his duffle bag for his pyjamas, Armitage heads off for his shower, the bathroom door closing behind him with a quiet click. Kylo slumps back in his chair, the place where Armitage’s hand had rested on his knee burns like a brand.

Thirty minutes later, Kylo is buried under the mass of quilts in bed as Armitage emerges from his shower smelling like a citrus grove, his hair curling damply behind his ears. Through half-closed eyes, Kylo admires Armitage’s long legs as he crosses the room to place his neatly folded clothes on the chair with his rain cape and bag. He smiles as he watches Armitage check all their equipment to make sure everything is plugged in correctly, then as he shakes out Kylo’s hoodie and folds it neatly over the chair. When Armitage finally stops his puttering around, Kylo scoots to the far side of the bed so that Armitage has enough room to slide in between the soft, fresh-smelling bed linens. He curls upon his side, a bemused smile tugging at his mouth when he sees Kylo watching him.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Kylo smiles. “You’re so proper is all, even when we were kids. Remember when you came to my house for the first time - you organized all my toys by colour and size.”

“Yes, well,” Armitage says haughtily. “Your room was a mess. I noticed you kept up with my organizational system for years afterward.”

Kylo laughs. “I was too afraid to move them! You were so serious.”

“But it was way easier to find everything, wasn’t it?”

They share an easy laugh, one borne of years of friendship and familiarity, before subsiding into a comfortable silence. Armitage regards Kylo thoughtfully.

“You know, we can always cancel this episode if it’s not working for you.”

Kylo reaches out to tuck a lock of Armitage’s soft hair behind his ear, stomach flip-flopping as Armitage briefly leans into the touch.

“I don’t want to cancel it - we’ve put too much work into it already, we’re here and we’ve got interviews and site visits lined up. It’s just been a long day like you said.”

Armitage smiles. “Alright then, good.” He yawns as he reaches over to turn off the bedside lamp. “I’ve set the alarm, we should try to get some sleep, the next few days will be busy.”

He rolls over to his other side and curls in on himself, snuggling under the blankets with a contented sigh. Kylo flips over onto his back and studies the ceiling beams in the dim light. As his eyes adjust to the darkness, he can just make out the tiny flickering green lights of their equipment charging and the windows edged in moonlight. 

Kylo hasn’t left London in some time and he’s forgotten how the stillness of the country night can be so absolute. There’s no ambient noise from traffic or people shambling home from drunken nights at the bars, no light pollution. There’s only the quiet and utter darkness and it sets him a little bit on edge.

Every creak and groan of the house settling around them, every gust of wind agitates him and he tosses restlessly on his side of the bed for at least an hour before finally settling on his side so that he can watch the gentle rise and fall of Armitage’s chest as he slumbers. His eyes begin to flutter closed as the tension finally unspools from his shoulders when a mournful baying pierces the quiet of the night. The eerie howl is long and drawn out and when it finally breaks off, the echo of it bounces around Kylo’s head and skitters over his skin. He shudders and it takes all of his willpower not to cuddle in close to Armitage for safety.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo, Armitage, and Rey embark on the first site visitation of their week in Pendle. Will an EVP be heard on set? What, if any, evidence will they collect with the spirit box? And most importantly, what about that mysterious dog? Kylo has a bad feeling about this.

“This is the worst,” Kylo mutters to himself as he stumbles over a wet clump of earth in the soggy field.

The sun has just set, painting the sky in brilliant streaks of red and pink, and they’re approaching the crumbling, desolate stone farmhouse for their first site visit of the trip. Kylo and Armitage sweep their flashlights over the ground ahead of them, watching out for uneven bits of earth, rocks, and other unpleasant things in the field that they may not want to step in.

“Oh shit, this place looks like a nightmare.” Kylo feels decidedly less brave upon seeing the decrepit farmhouse in the moonlight. It hadn’t looked so bad this afternoon.

“It looks rather romantic.” Armitage arcs his light over the crumbling stone facade.

“You and I have very different definitions of ‘romantic’ then.”

Kylo glances back over his shoulder to see Rey grinning and adjusting her camera, the red recording light flickers at him in the gloom. Beside him, Armitage pans his light forward, catching the dull gleam of the rusted metal hinges on the dilapidated farmhouse door.

Kylo inhales deeply. “Well, this is the infamous Malkin Tower Farm-”

“Shit.” Armitage interrupts with a grin, his eyes gleaming as Kylo flashes the light in his face. “You mean ‘Shit’ Tower Farm.”

“I did _not_ mean that,” Kylo rolls his eyes, “but thanks, that’s super helpful.”

“You’re absolutely welcome.” Armitage laughs as Kylo aims the light at his face again. “And don’t edit that out in post.”

Armitage giggles again as Kylo huffs, feigning annoyance that they both know he doesn’t really feel, before they quickly sober up, remembering the weight of history pressing down on them.

“So this is where Granny Demdike lived with her daughter, Elizabeth Device, and her grandchildren, Alizon, James, and Jennet.”

“This is a pretty small house for five people,” Armitage says, passing his light over the decaying house highlighting the partially caved-in thatched roof and walls crawling with ivy.

“Yeah.” Kylo takes a deep, fortifying breath. “I guess we should go in.” His feet remain rooted in place, however.

“Come on, this is going to be great,” Armitage says as he tries to tug Kylo toward the house. “This case really has it all.”

Kylo digs in his heels for a second before allowing Armitage to drag him to the farmhouse door. Rey laughs quietly as she follows with the camera, moving into a position to best capture Kylo’s apprehensive face. Kylo whimpers to himself as he lifts his hand to knock on the weathered wooden door. He hesitates, laying his palm flat upon the door, and turns back to Armitage.

“I’m going to regret this,” he takes a deep breath, “but maybe we should go in separately first, maybe we’ll get better results that way.”

“Sure, if you think you can handle it.” Armitage nods.

“I hate that you’re so relaxed right now.”

“What’s there to be nervous about?” Armitage sniffs. “I’m out here in this charming countryside, having a nice walk in the moonlight with my friends, no place I’d rather be.”

“Ugh.”

Armitage barks a laugh, eyes dancing in the beam of Kylo’s flashlight. “Look, I’ll even go first if that will make you feel better. Give me ten minutes.”

“I changed my mind about this. I think it’s ill-advised.” 

Armitage darts around Kylo, winking at him cheekily as he opens the door and steps inside the old farmhouse, letting the door clatter shut behind him. Kylo snorts and turns to Rey.

“Listen to him.” Kylo huffs. “Pretending this isn’t the creepiest fucking place we’ve ever been too. My heart’s beating so fast right now.” He titters weakly as he presses a hand to his chest, trying to cover his nervousness and steady his racing heart.

Rey laughs behind the camera. Kylo paces around a bit, nervously peering into the darkness.

“I’ve got chills right now. How much time is left?” He looks at his phone. “Oh great, there's still eight minutes to go.”

“Ky, you need to relax.”

“Do you think he’s okay in there? I’m not hearing anything.”

“I’m sure he’s fine, just chill, please.”

Eight long minutes later, Armitage appears in the doorway looking thoughtful, but calm. Kylo pounces on him.

“Was it okay? Are you okay?”

“It was fine.” Armitage holds his flashlight beneath his chin, throwing his features into sharp relief. He grins devilishly. “It’s your turn… and they’re waiting for you.”

“I swear to god you’re the worst.”

Armitage cackles gleefully. “Just get in there, it’s fine, I promise.”

Kylo nods bravely and heads for the door. He pauses at the threshold to sweep his light around the empty room; the bright beam of light catches on the cobwebs that drape from the roofbeams and snag in the corners of the room. The packed earthen floor is a bit dusty and he can see faint impressions from Armitage’s boots where he had paced around the room. He steps in and lets the door swing closed behind him. Noticing an odd notch in the far wall, he crosses the room to investigate as his flashlight flickers and blinks out.

“Oh my god, my light just died!” He cries, slapping the light against his palm and shaking it, trying to encourage it to turn back on. “Oh fuck, fuck.”

The beam shudders to life, weakly, as a thunderous knocking rattles the door in its frame.

“Stop banging on the door, you ass!”

“You’ve got to be quiet in there!” Armitage calls back, barely suppressing his giggles.

Kylo shrieks.

“What? What is it?” Armitage sounds concerned, all traces of laughter in his voice suddenly evaporating. “Kylo?”

“I freaked out because I thought I saw something but it was just my light.”

“Stop joking around and get to work!”

A burst of hysterical laughter bubbles up from within him then he falls silent, panning the camera slowly around the room.

“My name’s Kylo.” He whispers to no one. “I’m sorry I’m in here bothering you. Is there anyone here who’d like to say something? Elizabeth, or Alizon? Anyone?”

He falls silent again, letting the camera’s microphone record the quiet of the night.

“I’m sorry for what happened to you.”

A faint scuttling sound ripples up from behind him and he whirls around, camera held to his chest like a shield. He blinks owlishly in the gloom, trying in vain to see clearly in the dark but the movement of his light and the shadows on the rough-hewn walls is starting to play tricks on his eyes. He crosses the room to examine the large hearth along the back wall. The bricks are dusty with age but he can still see the faint stains of ash from the fires that must have been constantly burning in the hearth. Brushing his fingers over some scratches and scoring on the bricks near the back of the hearth, his fingertips come away sooty. Behind him, the door suddenly flies open. He whips around with a strangled scream.

“Time’s up.”

Armitage enters the room closely followed by Rey.

“You made it, love, the ten minutes are up.”

Kylo is so relieved to see them both that he doesn’t register the pet name immediately. He collapses against Armitage’s shoulder, suddenly boneless.

“Should we go? Do you think that’s enough for tonight?” Armitage scrutinizes him closely. “Are you alright? You look a bit peaky.”

“I’m okay. Armitage, I’m fine!” He sputters in response to Armitage’s raised eyebrow. “Let’s try the spirit box first, I just got it last week.” With some reluctance, Kylo pushes himself away from Armitage’s side and takes the small device out of his bag.

“What’s a spirit box?” Rey askes, coming closer to get a shot of it with her camera.

“It scans radio frequencies at a super high rate and they say ghosts can supposedly manipulate the white noise to speak to us.”

“And who says this?” Armitage inquires skeptically, arms crossed.

“Ah, the paranormalists?”

Armitage snorts. “Okay, sure. Go on then, crank it.”

Kylo presses a button on the side of the box and it roars to life spilling a harsh, staccato white noise at them.

“That’s really loud,” Rey shouts over the drone.

They listen to the device rapidly scanning through channels, little bits of music and voices cut through the static but nothing that is understandable comes through.

“My name’s Kylo, and that’s Armitage and Rey.” Kylo looks nervously up at them. “Can you say our names?”

The device spits static at them then a scratchy voice cuts through the noise.

“ _No…_ ”

Kylo gasps. “Did it just say ‘No’?” He looks down at the device again, then up at Armitage, who merely shrugs. “Can you tell us your name?” 

The spirit box stutters and hisses, a few bars of music come through. Rey leans in with her camera, she angles it so the microphone is tilted toward the small black device in Kylo’s hand.

“ _No._ ”

Armitage laughs. “The ghosts are just fucking with you now.”

Kylo squares his shoulders, determined to make this work. “We’re looking for Elizabeth or Alizon. Or James, are you here now?

“ _Get out._ ”

“I heard ‘get out’,” Kylo says, his voice high and tight, “what the hell?”

Armitage looks unconvinced. “Maybe? I don’t know, try again just so we can be sure it wasn’t a coincidence.”

“That was two full words,” Kylo replies, glancing over at Armitage. “That means at least five channels had to align to make those sounds, it can’t be a coincidence.”

“Let me try.” Armitage steps closer, slipping his hand around Kylo’s elbow, he directs his words to the spirit box. “What colour jackets are we wearing?”

The spirit box hisses and squawks as it runs through the channels.

“ _Black and… green._ ”

Kylo and Rey gasp but Armitage rolls his eyes. He tries again. “Tell us your name.”

“ _No… get out._ ”

Kylo presses closer to Armitage who hums to himself as he contemplates the spirit box in Kylo’s shaking hands. He takes the device from Kylo and turns it off, the sudden silence after the harsh static of the spirit box makes Kylo’s ears ring. He exhales shakily as he accepts the device from Armitage’s more steady hand. 

Kylo glances at Rey’s curious face, then over to Armitage who simply raises an eyebrow in return. The scuttling sound Kylo heard earlier rustles again from behind them, Armitage trains his light in the direction of the sound, aiming over Kylo’s shoulder but there’s nothing to see but the dusty corner of the room.

“Well, that was-”

Before Armitage can finish, the scrabbling sounds again, closer this time. All three of them pan their lights over the wall at the end of the room. From outside the house, a sudden gust of wind rattles the hedges alongside the wall.

“Let’s get the fuck out of here.” Kylo whispers.

“Heck, yes.” Rey nods as she hurries towards the door, Kylo and Armitage following quickly.

They huddle together a few steps away from the house beside the low stone wall that divides their field from the next. While they had been inside the farmhouse, a few stars had begun to gleam in the velvety night sky and Kylo would almost find it pleasant if he wasn’t standing mere yards from a haunted house.

“Well, that was certainly something,” Armitage laughs.

Kylo gapes at him. “How can you be so calm right now?”

“Look, don’t get so worked up,” Armitage lays a calming hand on Kylo’s bicep, “The spirit box isn’t proof of anything so let’s just go back to the hotel, and tomorrow we’ll analyze the footage and see if we really heard what we think we heard.”

Kylo starts to argue but Rey cuts him off.

“You know he’s right, Ky, this is no place to hang around arguing about it. Let’s get out of here and figure it out in the morning.”

Kylo gives in with bad grace and allows Armitage, hand still on his shoulder, to guide him away from the farmhouse, following Rey up the hill toward the car. A rustling from the hedges along with the sound of something heavy scraping over rocks draws their attention back to the house. Kylo aims his light into the bushes, whimpering when the light illuminates a large pair of golden eyes blinking out at them from between the branches.

All three of them freeze in place, glued to the glowing eyes that are watching them from the bushes. Rey claps her hand over her mouth to stifle a gasp and Kylo inhales sharply as he feels something cold touch his hand but it’s just Armitage, slipping his steady hand into Kylo’s shaking grasp. They hold onto each other tightly as the glowing eyes blink once, twice, then vanish. The hedges rustle and tremble, as though something large is moving through them, then the door to the farmhouse slams shut. The sound echoing across the moonlit fields like a gunshot.

“Well, I think that’s enough for me for one night,” Rey whispers. “Let’s get out of here.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Armitage replies. He tugs on Kylo’s hand to get him moving and they hurry across the fields toward the car, gripping each other’s hands tightly.

“Holy shit, did you see that?” Kylo says, a hysterical edge to his voice. He lets go of Armitage’s hand only long enough to get the car door open.

They pile in quickly, heaving all the equipment into the backseat with Rey, rather than neatly storing it in the trunk. Once they’re all in, Armitage locks the doors firmly and revs the engine. He reaches for Kylo’s hand again once the car is in motion heading towards town.

“Rey, are you okay?” Armitage asks, glancing at her in the rearview mirror. Kylo turns to peek at her over his shoulder.

“I’m fine.” She promises. “That wasn’t even as scary as the time we did the Jack the Ripper video. I still can’t believe you pulled a switchblade on that guy, Armitage, I thought he was going to faint.”

They laughed at the memory and that seems to cut the tension as relief floods through Kylo’s body. He lets his head drop back against the headrest, his eyes fluttering closed. He smiles.

“That guy was going to shit himself, Armitage, that was the most badass thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah, well, he was being an arse.” Armitage’s mouth curls up with a small satisfied smile. “I wouldn’t really have hurt him, he just needed to be scared off.”

Kylo and Rey laugh again while Armitage looks pleased with himself. Kylo’s phone chimes a few times, then, but he doesn’t want to let go of Armitage’s hand to check his texts, he assumes it’s Rey anyway - there are only two people who ever text him and they are both in the car with him right now. He glances at Rey in the rearview mirror again. Her eyes still look a little wild, and wisps of her hair have fallen out of her top knot, but she gives him an enthusiastic thumbs up and gestures emphatically to his and Armitage’s joined hands.

As much as he wants to squeeze Armitage’s hand tightly and scream his happiness out the car window, Kylo holds himself back. Smiling faintly at Rey as he shakes his head minutely, he tries to dampen down the excitement rolling through his body. He doesn’t want to read too much into Armitage’s gesture. Armitage has always been protective of him, even when they were small, and it’s possible that the hand-holding is nothing more than a reflexive gesture long borne of habit. Or, perhaps not. Kylo surreptitiously glances at Armitage out of the corner of his eye. He looks at mostly at ease as he concentrates on driving, only a slight tightness around his eyes belies his calm exterior. Kylo chalks that up to the bizarre events of the night rather than them holding hands since Armitage is still gripping his hand tightly. His phone chimes a couple more times as they pull up in front of the hotel and he catches Rey’s eye again in the mirror and they share a secret smile.

Later, when they are safely tucked into their bed, Kylo is certain that Armitage has definitely rolled over a few inches so that he’s closer to Kylo than he was the previous night. And even though the events of the night were unsettling, Kylo is again soothed to sleep by the gentle susurrations of Armitage’s breathing. As he curls up close to Armitage, his eyes flutter closed and he’s soon drifting away, following Armitage into sleep, safe in the knowledge that whatever’s going on, Armitage will make it right.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo and Armitage share some downtime after the startling events of the first site visit to the witches' farmhouse. Even with Armitage's steady presence, the eerie countryside, unexplained events, and bizarre wildlife is starting to fray Kylo's nerves.

Armitage is gone by the time Kylo awakens the next morning, only the indent of his head on the pillow and the tumble of blankets suggests he’s been there at all. Kylo slides his hand over the sheets, finding them soft and cool to the touch - Armitage had left some time ago then.

Kylo pours himself out of bed and shuffles over to the desk where their camera equipment, and Kylo’s phone, are charging. Armitage's camera is still there, the battery in the charger, so he hasn’t gone off to film anything. Kylo unplugs his phone and swipes at the screen - no messages from either Armitage or Rey.

He sits down at the desk to begin the tedious task of transferring all the footage from the night before onto his computer. Starting with Armitage’s camera, Kylo plugs the SD card into his laptop and sets up a new folder. Once the images are transferring, he arches into a deep stretch and slumps back against the chair, thinking about the events of last night.

Armitage had held his hand, and called him ‘love’, and while they had always had an easy, teasing friendship, the hand-holding and pet names is a new development. Kylo shakes his head both to push his tangled curls off his face and to clear the cobwebs from his brain. The thing with Armitage is too much for him to unpack this early in the day, and without coffee, so he decides to just wait and let Armitage take the lead. He’s good at that sort of thing.

As for the mysterious happenings that have been occurring since they arrived in Pendle, he has to hope that that too, will sort itself out in time. A notification pops up on his screen letting him know that the transfer is complete so he plugs in his headphones and plays one of the files, eager to see if Armitage captured anything juicy. He snorts as Armitage’s running commentary starts.

“If there are any unquiet spirits here that wish to communicate, I’m here to listen.” Armitage pauses for a moment. “Any spirits at all.” Kylo watches him pan the camera around the room then walk over to the hearth. “Hello, spirits?” he says in a singsong voice which Kylo laughs at. “Ghosts, I’m beginning to suspect that you’re not real.” Armitage turns the camera around to focus in on his face. “I’m going to turn my light off now so, ghosts, have at it.” Once the light is off, Armitage is faintly illuminated by shafts of moonlight sneaking in through the patchy roof. He looks eerie and otherworldly with his pale skin graced with silvery moonlight, a smug smile on his face, and his tumble of burnished red hair. As Kylo watches as Armitage pans the camera back and forth around the room again, this time in the darkness, he hears a garbled voice whisper through the headphones.

Kylo sits bold upright, pressing the headphones harder against his ears. Could he have heard that right? Backing the video up, he listens intently again. There’s definitely a voice but he can’t make out what it’s saying. He’s on his fifth attempt to decipher the voice when he’s jolted out of his trance by a tap on the shoulder and paper coffee cup plunking down beside his laptop. He blinks rapidly, eyes dry and itchy from concentrating on the screen, then looks up to see Armitage smiling at him.

“Oh my god, Armitage.” Kylo pulls off the headphones and leaps to his feet, knocking the chair over. He grips Armitage by the shoulders. “Listen to this, you caught a real, actual EVP when you were in the farmhouse.” He presses the headphones into Armitage’s hand and rolls back the video.

Armitage dutifully slips the headphone into place and concentrates. He laughs as he hears his own silly commentary then falls silent as he listens for the EVP, one eyebrow rising steadily as he tries not to smirk. He removes the headphones as the video stops.

“I don’t know.” He bites his lip as if he’s sorry to burst Kylo’s bubble. “I mean, maybe it’s a voice but it could just as easily be my boot scraping over something on the ground, or it could be ambient background noise.”

“How can you say that?” Kylo makes a grab for the headphones but Armitage holds them out of his grasp. “We got a real EVP on tape, this is amazing.” He dives for the chair, setting it upright he sits and reaches for his own camera. “Let’s see what I got.”

Armitage coils the headphones into a loop and sets them down on the desk. He nudges the coffee towards Kylo.

“Drink that, I think you need it.” He watches as Kylo takes a sip absently, eyes still on the screen. “How about we watch the footage later, let’s go for a run. Don’t think I didn’t see you getting winded on our hike yesterday.”

“No, I’ve got to watch this.”

“Kylo.” Armitage lays his hand on top of Kylo’s, stopping his jittery drumming on the desk. “It’ll take a while to upload everything, let’s go for a run - it’ll help, I promise.”

Kylo glances up and really focuses on Armitage. He’s already wearing his running clothes and a dainty flush creeps across Kylo’s cheeks. Armitage’s running tights with the sheer panels that run up and down the sides show off his legs to great advantage and Kylo is absolutely weak for them but he doesn’t think Armitage knows about that.

“Alright, fine.” Kylo affects a frown as Armitage smiles smugly. “Are you happy that you always get your way?”

“Immensely, thank you for humouring me.”

He leaves Armitage to see to the uploading of the video while he dashes about getting changed. Once dressed in his more sensible running attire of plain black shorts and a gray t-shirt, they head down the stairs and out the front door of the hotel where Kylo is immediately confronted with another damn raven sitting on the wall across from their hotel.

“Seriously?” He mutters to himself, arms hanging limply at his side.

It couldn’t possibly be the same raven from the other day, could it? But the way the bird fixes its dark, beady eyes on him, head cocked to the side, tells Kylo that it’s definitely the same blasted bird. He glares at it but the raven simply ruffles its feathers, stretches its wings, and then settles back onto its perch on the wall, completely nonplussed. Kylo looks away with a sigh - something is seriously wrong with the wildlife in this area. Armitage, finishing with his warm-up stretches, notices Kylo’s distraction.

“What now?”

Kylo presses the heels of his hands to his eyes. “Nothing. That bird gives me the creeps is all.” He drops his hands and gestures across the street with a jut of his chin. Armitage glances over his shoulder.

“It’s just a crow, isn’t it? Why are you acting so weird?” He steps off the pavement and into the street, looking at Kylo over his shoulder. “Come on.”

“This whole area is weird, everything seems a little bit off.” Kylo huffs between breaths. “You said it yourself yesterday.”

“I must have been feeling exceptionally poetic,” Armitage says breezily. “I was inspired by the view.”

They soon fall into an easy rhythm, their strides syncing up so that they are evenly paced. Soon, they leave the small hamlet behind and follow the narrow single-lane road as it cuts a path through the surrounding fields lying fallow for the winter. The horrible raven follows them though, flying ahead it perches on a barren tree a little way down the road to wait for them.

“Look, I appreciate that you’re nervous but I don’t think you should let this case, or the depressing countryside, get to you.” Armitage glances at him. “There’s nothing magical going on, now or in the past.”

Kylo wheezes grumpily as he follows Armitage, matching him stride for stride as Armitage quickens their pace. Wound tight as he is, Kylo finds that the exercise does help, he can already feel the tension melting away from his back and shoulders. It feels good to be out for a run with Armitage, it’s been too long. They’d let their coursework get the better of them this term and he’d spent too many days and nights in the editing suite at school while Armitage had been holed up in the library.

The raven swoops low in front of them then rises high on a gust of wind. It soars above them for a few moments then angles away to land on the fence bordering the road. No cars have passed them yet so they have the road, and the surrounding fields, to themselves.

“A lot of the women confessed to witchcraft, according to my readings,” Kylo says, picking up the thread of their earlier conversation. “And like, the evidence presented at the trial was textbook stuff - bones and body parts, clay dolls, creepy incantations, and animal familiars.”

“Yes, but it was like we said before, the case was stacked against the accused,” Armitage replies, his breathing barely affected by their lively pace. “The magistrate and the judges were basically following a script and they presented exactly the kind of evidence the jury would have expected them to.”

“Do you think they planted the evidence on the women?”

Armitage guides them to a stop so that Kylo can catch his breath. “That’s impossible to know.” He said, continuing to walk so their muscles stay warm. “But both Demdike and Chattox were well-known cunning women, it’s not really much of a stretch to believe they might have actually dabbled in witchcraft.”

Kylo presses a hand firmly to a stitch in his side as Armitage rests his hand on the small of his back, urging him forward. As they continue at a walking pace, the raven lands on the road in front of them and hops along, staying a few feet in front of them. Kylo makes a shooing motion but the raven simply cackles at him and leaps into the air, landing in another tree beside the road. Armitage just rolls his eyes as the bird jeers at them as they walk by.

“And just because we know that you can’t actually kill a person through incantations and burning clay figures, doesn’t mean that they didn’t try.” Armitage shrugs. “People are found guilty of attempted murder today, it’s not such a ridiculous notion when you think of it that way.”

“Oh,” Kylo says, clearing his throat. “I hadn’t thought of it like that before.” He pauses, considering the evidence. “So you mean, they were actually guilty then.”

“Maybe, we’ll never know for certain.” Armitage nods toward the long ribbon of road in front of them, indicating that he wants to pick up the pace. “Let’s keep going.”

Kylo nods, resigned but grateful that Armitage goes slower this time. They work their way up a slight incline and around a gently curving corner. The barren, winter trees close in tightly to the road, the dry branches rattling with a strong gust of wind. Armitage glances over at Kylo, smirking a little at his disheveled state.

“We’ll never be able to know the intentions behind the actions of the Pendle witches, all we know from the court transcript is that the magistrate found the accouterments of witchcraft on their properties - bones, clay figures, oh-” Armitage’s voice trails off suddenly. As they round the corner and the road flows down into the valley, a large black shape bursts from the hedges and up onto the road about a hundred yards in front of them. “-speaking of familiars.”

“Oh, fuck.” Kylo yanks Armitage to a stop, gripping his arm tightly. From high above on its perch on the tree, the raven kicks up a fuss, squawking and cawing madly in the direction of the black dog.

“Is that the dog you were talking about?” Armitage steps slightly in front of Kylo, shielding him when Kylo silently nods.

The dog cocks its head, regarding them thoughtfully. It wags its plumy tail once then darts into the hedges on the other side of the road and is gone. Kylo shivers violently as a cold sweat breaks out all over his body. The unrelenting wind, pushing the dirty clouds through the lead grey sky above, chills him even further. In the tree, the raven has fluffed itself up to twice its normal size, trying to look intimidating.

Armitage turns to Kylo with wide eyes. “Maybe we should go back,” He says, seeing how rattled Kylo is by the appearance of the dog, “We haven’t seen a single person since we left the inn if something happens, no one will know where we are.”

Kylo nods vigorously, not trusting his voice. Armitage takes Kylo’s cold hand and drags him a few steps until Kylo can stumble into a faster stride.

“Holy shit, Armitage.” Kylo gasps as they sprint down the road, the raven flying ahead and circling back to check on them constantly. He’s now glad for its presence. “You believe me now that there’s a dog following us.”

Armitage is silent in contemplation. “Again, I don’t think we should jump to any conclusions here. We saw a dog, from far away, it could just be a dog and nothing more.” He said finally, placing his hand on Kylo’s lower back, not caring that Kylo’s shirt is damp from exertion. “I’m sorry I made that joke about familiars though.” He looks chastened and Kylo smiles, nerves settling with the easy camaraderie of the moment.

“Oh, that supposed to be a joke?” Kylo grins, ducking as Armitage tries to tug on his topknot. “I couldn’t tell.”

“Quiet, you.” Armitage steps closer, letting their shoulders brush as they run. “Look, I’m not trying to be dismissive of the dog, the spirit box, or the creepiness of the area, but I am dismissing it. We have to try not to speculate on assumptions here, we should gather the evidence first.”

Kylo nods. “Alright,” he wheezes, “alright. I’ll try to try, but I can’t promise anything.” Armitage laughs.

The town finally comes into view again as the sky opens up and they are pelted with a cold rain. The big, fat raindrops soak them instantly, creating puddles on the uneven road surface. In the haze, Pendle Hill is barely visible in the distance, and the drumming of the rain on the pavement makes further conversation difficult. 

Kylo throws quick glances back over his shoulder but the black dog never reappears. He breathes a sigh of relief as they hurry up to the door of the hotel. It’s only then that he also notices that the raven has disappeared as well.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After seeing the mysterious hound for the third time, Kylo is more than happy to get out of Pendle for a few hours. However, the second site visit of the expedition, Lancaster Castle, is anything but relaxing. Well-known for its long and brutal history as a prison, Lancaster Castle was the final home of the Pendle Witches as they awaited their trial. What new horrors lie in wait for the London Below team? Are ghosts real? Kylo is now definitely sure the answer is yes.

Kylo is eager to get out of Pendle after the encounter with the dog and once he had finished his quick shower and dressed, he buzzes nervously around the room while Armitage readies himself. Finally, after hovering over him for ten minutes, Armitage kicks him out of the room with strict instructions to go help Rey with the equipment. Dutifully, Kylo trudges downstairs to collect Rey and together, they pack their equipment in the car. Rey watches him with some concern as he tries hard to affect a calm demeanor, leaning against the side of the car, but his leg jigs nervously and gives him away. It was only when they were on the road to Lancaster does he begin to relax.

“If we were going to be in Lancaster this often, we should have just stayed there instead,” Armitage complains as he parks the car in the lot across the street from Lancaster Castle.

“Pendle is more authentic,” Kylo says as he bounds from the car, ignoring Armitage’s grumbling, eager to get to the castle. He accepts his bag from Rey and the three of them dash across the street to the cobblestone path that will bring them to the imposing castle entrance.

Rey and Armitage make impressed noises as they stop in front of the gatehouse for photos. The two towering turrets that make up the gatehouse loom over them and with the stones blackened by age, the portcullis open but not welcoming, the fortified entrance to the castle looks impenetrable. 

Kylo turns to Armitage with a smirk, focusing his camera on Armitage’s face. “So, do you have anything to say about the castle?”

Armitage grins smugly at the camera. “The look of this castle is so imposing, I’m surprised you’re conscious right now.”

“I’m holding it together.” Kylo tries to glare as Armitage laughs. “Okay, I’m taking the camera away from your stupid face now.”

“Oh no, don’t do that,” Armitage replies in a fake sing-song voice, grinning.

Kylo growls at him as he slouches away to hide by Rey’s side. Armitage slaps him lightly on the shoulder as he passes.

“Rey, any thoughts on the castle?” Kylo focuses the camera on her.

“Yeah.” She winks at Armitage. “How many ghosts do you think we’ll see inside?”

“You guys are the worst.” Kylo lowers his camera.

Armitage grasps Kylo by the elbow and steers him toward the gatehouse. “The castle is reported to be quite haunted, all joking aside. At least two hundred executions took place here, that’s a lot of opportunity for spiritual unrest.” He pulls them to a stop just before the walk through the arched doorway. “Wait, give me the EMF reader, we should have it available while we’re filming.” Kylo turns so that Armitage can access his knapsack and when he pulls out the device and flips it on, the screen shows a spike of activity.

“Hmm, that’s a pretty high reading.” Rey said, “does that mean anything?”

“The castle’s website says that people report seeing a shadowy figure around the gatehouse so perhaps?” Armitage raises his eyebrow as he looks at them.

They exit the gatehouse into the bailey. There is still a few minutes before they’re to meet the docent who will be escorting them around the castle so Kylo takes the opportunity to shoot some establishing shots of the castle. The high castle walls are grimy with age, making the castle look quite severe against the gloomy winter sky. As he’s panning his camera up to focus on the top floor of one of the towers, he’s startled to see a shadowy figure in the window staring down at them. He manages to hold the camera steady as the figure fades from view.

“Hey, Armitage-” Kylo stops himself. Armitage will likely say the figure was a trick of the light. He glances skywards, the wind is pushing the clouds swiftly across the sky and the sunlight is intermittent, at best. He looks back to the tower window and even from here, he can see the glass in the windows is old and warped with age. Armitage appears at his side, a curious look on his face. “What’s that tower there?” He points, deciding he’ll keep the shadowy specter to himself for the time being.

“That’s the Well Tower or the witches’ tower. I assume that will be our first stop.” Armitage shows him the map of the grounds on his tablet.

The sound of footsteps crunching over the gravel pathway of the bailey draws their attention away from the screen as a woman with a professional smile and long auburn hair swirled into a topknot on her head approaches them. She has a lanyard around her neck with an identification badge and a swipe card and from her hand, a large ring of keys jingle as she strides towards them.

“Mr. Ren?” She looks between Armitage and Kylo.

Kylo steps forward. “That’s me.” They shake hands and Kylo turns to introduce Armitage and Rey, who has rejoined them after going back to film the gateway in hopes of capturing a ghostly sentry on duty.

“I’m Morag, I’ll be your tour guide today.” She smiles. “Welcome to Lancaster Castle. All your paperwork for filming permissions is in order and since it’s just gone eleven, should we begin?”

She leads them across the yard and Armitage catches up with her to talk about the finer points of castle construction and within moments, both are gesticulating broadly to the castle walls. Armitage's voice is pitched excitedly as he points to the crenellations on the castle wall. Kylo smiles fondly at his back - listening to Armitage’s enthusiasm for English history almost makes Kylo regret that he chose film school over history. Almost, but not quite.

Rey catches up with him and bumps his shoulder. “Did you see that figure in the top window of the tower? I could have sworn someone was up there staring at us.”

“Yes! Thank fuck you saw it too, I thought I was losing it.”

Rey rests her camera and tripod against her shoulder. “What do think it was? I didn’t think the top floor was open for tours?” She glances up at him.

Kylo shrugs. “I don’t know. I mean, obviously I want to say it was a ghost, but it was probably just a staff member or security.”

“We’ll watch the footage tonight when we get back to the hotel,” Rey whispers as they come to a halt behind Armitage and Morag. Kylo nods, smiling when she gives his elbow a reassuring squeeze.

Morag shuffles through her heavy ring of keys. “This is the entrance to the Well Tower, more commonly known as the Witches Tower.” She extracts the correct key and unlocks the heavy, ornate iron gate that bars their way into the tower. She pulls a flashlight from her pocket so she can illuminate the steps down into the darkness. Holding the gate open for them, she shines the light down the stairs, showing them the way. Armitage quickly digs through his bag and produces his own light. Flicking it on, the twin beams of light do a fairly good job of lighting up the stairwell, although it’s so grim, Kylo’s not sure if he wants to see everything in such vivid detail. The stone steps are a bit damp from the winter weather and something drips from the ceiling above. 

Kylo takes a deep breath as he begins the descent. In the darkness, he feels Armitage grasp his hand and he holds on tightly. Rey’s small hand lands on his shoulder and together, the three of them cautiously descend into the gloom. Morag swings the gate shut behind them, locking it firmly once again. The weak sunlight trickling through the gate helps to light their way.

“So, I assume you’re already quite familiar with the history of the tower?” Morag’s voice floats down to them out of the black.

“Oh yes,” Armitage calls back. “We know all about the Pendle witches.”

They gather at the bottom of the stairs in front of a heavy, wooden door, slick with mildew. Morag shines her light over the door, searching for the lock.

“This is the cell where the Pendle witches were held for the four months before their trial.”

She tucks her flashlight under her arm to unlock the cell and as she heaves the aged door open, a gust of clammy, damp air sweeps over them from within the cell. The air of the dungeon is slightly fetid and the darkness is so thick, Kylo can barely see Armitage and Rey standing beside him.

“Okay, just come up when you’re ready. I’ll be just up there.” She points her light to the top of the stairs.

They thank her as they file into the cramped cell, Kylo pulling the heavy door closed behind them. It latches in place with a dull rumble that echoes off the stone walls with a sense of finality. Kylo can almost feel the centuries of despair and hopelessness settling around his shoulders and dragging him down. The room is so dark, the only light and fresh air comes from a narrow slit set high up in the wall and the feeble light that comes through barely provides any comfort. He can only see the vague shape of Armitage and Rey in the murky blackness, only the red recording light of Rey’s camera gives him any hint of her location. He hears a sharp _snick_ and then Armitage’s flashlight flares even brighter, creating a pool of warm, yellow light at his feet.

“So this is it. This is the cell that the Pendle witches spent their last months.” Armitage lets his flashlight play over the uneven paving stones of the cell, coming to rest on a rusted iron ring bolted into the floor. No one says anything as they look at the ring and the wet flagstones surrounding it.

Rey moves across the cell, getting into position to better utilize the weak light source the window slit is providing. “There were twelve people in this room?” She says incredulously. “There’s barely room for the three of us.”

“There were eight other prisoners in there too, they were unconnected to the witch trials,” Kylo replies. “Twenty people, in total, in this room for months.”

“It must have been horrible.” She shudders.

“Yes.” Armitage’s voice floats out of the gloom. “Typhoid ran rampant, it was dark and damp, and I’m going to assume health and safety standards were non-existent in the seventeenth century.” He crosses the tiny room to crouch down by the iron ring. “Granny Demdike was in her eighties, so it’s not surprising that she succumbed to jail fever.” He lifts the ring gingerly before carefully setting it back on the ground. The EMF reader in his hand buzzes so he rises to his feet. He focuses his light on it, frowning. “The meter spiked just now.”

“Holy shit, Armitage!” Kylo yelps. “There was an… I don’t know, an orb? Or something. A ball of blue light just floated across the room behind you!”

“What, where?” Armitage whirls around, peering into the darkness.

“Rey, did you catch it?” 

She swings her camera toward Kylo. “I don't know, it’s difficult to see anything in here, but I did have the camera focused on Armitage. We’ll have to watch the footage later to see.”

“Fuck, I just got the chills.”

Armitage grins slyly as he shines his light on Kylo. “Spirits, if you’re here, Kylo would like to feel a little shiver up his spine.”

“Shut up, oh my god!”

Rey and Armitage laugh. 

“Oh, just relax, will you? You’re safe.” Armitage can barely keep the mirth from his voice as he crosses the small cell to stand beside Kylo. 

Kylo sticks his tongue out at Armitage, causing another peal of laughter. “You always give me such a hard time.”

“You make it so easy, love, you set up the jokes perfectly.”

Kylo harrumphs as Rey and Armitage laugh again but they sober quickly, remembering to be respectful of where they are. Kylo feels something brush against his fingers and he starts to twitch away but Armitage just grabs at his hand more forcefully and laces their fingers together.

“I’m going to regret this,” Kylo says, “but maybe we should turn off the light?”

“Ooh, okay-”

“I don’t like how easily you agreed to that.”

Armitage grins, squeezing Kylo’s hand for support. “It’ll be fine, I promise.” He addresses the room. “We’re going to turn off the light now, so ghosts, do your thing. Touch us, if you like, push Kylo-”

“ _Shut up!_ ”

“Ruffle his hair.”

“You’re the worst.”

Rey muffles her giggles in her scarf as she pans the camera around the room. Armitage flicks the light off and the room is plunged into darkness. The silence is oppressive. The cell walls are so thick that no noise from the bailey outside penetrates the gloom, all Kylo can hear is the gentle breathing of Rey and Armitage but his own breath sounds harsh to his ears.

“If there’s anyone here who wants to say anything, make a noise, speak into our cameras, we’ll hear it.”

No one, human or elemental, answers his query.

“Is anyone in here with us? Demdike?” Armitage whispers, he holds the EMF reader close to his face to try to read the screen.

After several minutes of silence, Armitage releases Kylo’s hand so he can switch his flashlight on. “Well, what do you think?”

“Let’s go, I guess, we still have to go to the library and the courtroom.”

They file out of the cell, Kylo pauses in the doorway, casting a last look back into the lonely room. For a heart-stopping second, he thinks he can hear a soft sobbing emanating from a corner of the darkness. He looks away up the stairs but Armitage and Rey are already at the top by the gate. He turns back to the room and takes a step in, listening carefully but the sobbing has stopped. 

“I’m sorry.” He whispers to the room. “I’m sorry for what happened to you.”

He gasps as a soft blue pulse of light flickers in the corner then winks out, leaving the room dark and dull once more. He gently swings the heavy door closed on whatever lonesome spirits reside in the room and then dashes up the stairs back to Armitage’s side.

\----

In Kylo’s opinion, the library ends up being a bit of a bust. While it’s a beautiful room with dark, wood paneling on the walls, thick sweeping drapes, and rows upon rows of books which Armitage took one look at and said “I live here now” - they got no readings from the EMF meter and nothing from the spirit box. He can only hope that their cameras will pick up a whisper or two.

He leaves Armitage fawning over the shelf of books on Roman Britain and Rey photographing the sitting area - as soon as she lay down on the floral-patterned carpet to shoot up at the ornate ceiling, covered in a sprawling mural depicting the apotheosis of some goddess and bordered by plaster moldings of twisting vines, thistles, and oak leaves, he knows he’s lost her for a good thirty minutes.

Wandering to the far end of the library, camera recording all the while, Kylo stops at a long table displaying a beautiful copy of a nineteenth-century atlas. He flips through the gorgeous full-colour maps engrossed until a flash of movement in the periphery of his vision draws his attention.

He glances around the room but Rey, Armitage, and Morag are still at the other end of the library. The door to this section of the library is propped partially open and through it, Kylo can see into the dim hallway, and into the courtroom beyond. He goes to the door and peeks around the doorframe.

“Hello?”

A girlish giggle echoes off the stone walls of the corridor accompanied by the patter of shoes. Kylo leans further out into the hall.

“Hello? Is someone there?”

In the low light of the hallway, he can just make out the shape of a small girl leaning around the corner to look at him. He steps all the way into the hallway.

“Hey there.” He calls to her. “Are you lost? My friends and I can help you find your parents.”

The little figure steps into the hallway. She regards him cautiously for a moment then begins skipping toward him, humming to herself in an eerie sing-song voice. As she gets closer, Kylo sees that she’s wearing a blue dress in an old-fashioned sort of style, like the types of dresses they always wear in those BBC dramas that Armitage makes him watch. In fact, it’s entirely too odd, she’s also wearing a white kerchief in her hair and miniature white apron, Kylo thinks perhaps he should go fetch Armitage right now. Actually, that seems like the best idea he’s ever had so he attempts to slink back into the library.

“Wait.” The girl calls out in a thin, wispy voice. “What is your name?”

“Ah, Kylo? What’s yours?” He pauses, one hand on the doorframe.

“Elinor. Will you help me find my cat?”

That gives him pause and he looks down at her pleading, earnest face. “Okay, sure, but can I go get my friends first, we’ll all help.”

“No, we need to go now.” She reaches up for his hand to tug him down the hall. Kylo gasps as her little fingers wrap around his index finger, her hands are like ice. “She ran this way, I’m afraid she’ll be lost forever down here.”

When he begins to follow her down the corridor, she lets go of his hand and skips ahead merrily, skimming her fingers against the dark stone of the walls.

“What’s your cat’s name?” Kylo asks, glancing back to the library door.

“Fancie,” Elinor replies, turning back to hasten him along. “She’s black and white.”

Kylo shives as the temperature in the hallway drops dramatically the further away from the library he walks. The lights along the ceiling flicker briefly, and one by one, they fizzle out plunging the hallway into darkness.

“How did Fancie get lost, what happened to her?”

Elinor doesn’t answer but simply urges Kylo to follow her along the shadowy hallway where plaintive mewing echoes from around the unlit corner of the next passage.

“That’s Fancie!” Elinor cries, tugging Kylo forward.

He’s about to follow her around the corner into the blackness when something grabs him from behind and pulls him back into the light. A scream catches in his throat and he nearly drops his camera.

“Who are you talking to and where the hell are you going?” Armitage demands, his eyes are wide and he’s bitten his lips rosy. “We’ve been looking for you.”

“I was just-” He looks around wildly but Elinor and Fancie have vanished. “-Nothing, I was just narrating for the camera. Let’s go.”

Armitage looks at him, disbelief plain upon his face but he lets it go. “Come on.” He leads Kylo toward the courtroom, not relinquishing his tight grip on Kylo’s hand until they’re safely inside the room. “Here he is.” He announces to Rey and Morag. “Now we can get started.”

Morag runs through a brief history of the courtroom to which Kylo barely listens, too preoccupied with the weird girl and her missing cat, but Armitage and Rey listen avidly, with Armitage nodding in agreement with almost everything Morag says. Kylo looks at him, feeling a quick pulse of warmth in his chest. Armitage, Rey, and Morag turn to look at him expectantly and Kylo thinks for an instant that he’s made an unconscious noise but then he realizes Morag has just finished with her speech. Armitage catches his fond gaze and smiles, Rey just rolls her eyes.

With a promise to be back to check on them in an hour, Morag takes her leave, off to call in at the administration office. Armitage, phone at the ready, trots down the steps and over to the judges’ bench to examine the intricately carved wooden panels that cover the wall. Seeing Armitage distracted, Kylo hurries over to Rey. Motioning for her to follow, they dash up the stairs on the other side of the court on the pretense of examining the heraldic crests that line the back wall.

“Something weird happened.” He whispers to her. “Are you recording?”

“Yes, but hang on.” Rey pauses the camera then looks up at him. “What do you mean ‘something weird’? Something weird is always happening to you, those words hardly have any meaning anymore.”

“Yeah, but this time-”

“Hey, ghosts!” Armitage’s voice booms around the room capturing their attention. “If you want to say anything, now’s the time.”

Rey grins at Armitage’s bravado, she glances up at Kylo. “Ky, it’ll be fine.” She presses the record button again as she steps away. “Just try to relax, this is fun. Come on, you can’t let Armitage hog all the spotlight again.”

She jerks her chin in the direction of the witness box where Armitage is standing defiantly, camera and EMF reader recording. She pats him on the back gently, then pushes more forcefully to propel him down the stairs ahead of her.

“Hmm, just as I suspected ghosts, you’re not real.” Armitage’s voice sounds bored as he leans forward on his elbows, drumming his fingers impatiently against the desk.

“Um, please don’t be scared by my long-legged friend,” Kylo says, grinning weakly up at Armitage as he joins Rey on the floor of the court. “You can talk to us, we’re here to listen.”

They fall silent, giving any willing spirits time to whisper into the camera. Kylo pans his camera around the intimidating room. The windows are heavily veiled with cream-coloured shades and voluminous burgundy drapes which match the colour of the threadbare carpet on the floor. Kylo cranes his neck back to look at the three enormous portraits of long-dead luminaries that hang above the judges’ bench - he doesn’t know who the portraits represent, perhaps former magistrates or local nobility - Armitage would likely know. They’re probably old friends, Kylo grins at the thought.

“Hey, Armitage, who are those portraits-”

A high, reedy wailing kicks up in the corridor outside of the courtroom. The keening floods into the courtroom and it builds and builds with a terrifying intensity, rattling the windows in their frames, shaking dust motes and plaster free from the ceiling overhead. As the droning continues, and just as Kylo is certain the room is going to vibrate apart around them, the heartbreaking wailing stops. Kylo shudders, shaking his head to dislodge the reverberating scream. Rey’s face is pale, her camera hanging forgotten at her side, and Armitage is gripping the edge of the desk, white-knuckled and wide-eyed.

“Kylo, what the bloody hell was that?” Armitage pries his hands from the desk and seeing the stricken look on Kylo’s face, rushes down from the docket to press against his side for reassurance. Kylo slips his arm around Armitage’s waist and holds onto him like his life depends on it.

“I’m going to go check the hallway, maybe others heard it too.”

“Rey, no.” Kylo starts but he breaks off seeing her determined face. “At least, let’s all go together.”

Hand in hand, the three of them march up the stairs to the door. Cautiously, Rey slowly swings the heavy door open inch by inch, then peeks around the doorframe. Kylo and Armitage lean around her to look down the gloomy hallway. The lights overhead offer little in the way of illumination as only weak yellow light spills from them to pool upon the gray flagstones of the hallway. Across the hall, Morag leans up against wall scrolling through something on her phone.

“Oh, are you done already?” She stops, seeing their pale faces. “Are you guys okay?”

“Uh, everything’s under control, we had a slight equipment malfunction but everything’s perfectly all right now.” Kylo babbles heartily. “We’re fine. We’re all fine here, now, thank you. How are you?” 

“Fine.” She slowly raises an eyebrow. “Let me know if I can help.”

“Thank you.” They chorus in unison and flee back into the room. Rey hauls the door shut again.

They descend down the stairs to collapse into the hard wooden benches of the jury box.

“Well, anything we get from the spirit box now is going to seem like a letdown after that,” Armitage says wryly. Only the slight tremor that runs up his leg where he and Kylo are pressed together betrays him.

“I agree, actually,” Kylo says, looking between Rey and Armitage for confirmation. “I’m ready to get the fuck out of this creepy place.”

Rey’s face is still pale as she nods. “Okay, sure. We should finish up the tour though since we already paid for it.”

“I’m fine with that.” Armitage, his eyes rove over Kylo’s face. “You’re sure though, this is our only day to film here.” Kylo nods and flashes a small smile at him.

“This place is definitely haunted. I don’t think there’s any more need to continue our investigations here.”

“That’s good enough for me.” Rey says as she gathers up her camera and bag and shuffles out of the jury box.

Armitage slides out next but he waits at the aisle for Kylo. As Kylo stumbles out of the bench, dragging his bag along behind him, Armitage watches him with an affectionate smile. As they mount the stairs to the leave the courtroom, the lights overhead flicker. Armitage turns to Kylo and mouths “it’s all fine” to which Kylo smiles bravely in return. He flings his arm around Armitage’s shoulders and together they hurry out of the courtroom without a backward glance.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kylo, Armitage, and Rey head back to Lancaster for a second day of filming but this time, their destination is the notorious gallows hill where many prisoners, the Pendle Witches among them, met the rough rope and the short drop. Despite the creepy events of the day before Kylo is optimistic, that black dog definitely didn't follow them to Lancaster, right? Right?

Even though they had stayed awake until the small hours of the morning talking about the strange happens at Lancaster Castle, Kylo awakens early to the sound of Armitage’s quiet huffs of laughter. His eyes flutter open to see Armitage curled against his side, scrolling through his phone, a soft smile on his face.

“What’s so funny?” Kylo rasps, his mouth feeling sticky and dry.

Armitage grins at him over top of the phone then flops over on to his back and holds the phone above their heads so they can both see the small screen. “I’m just looking at some of my photos from yesterday.”

He quickly flips through several pictures of the gatehouse of Lancaster Castle slowing down when he comes to photos of Kylo looking apprehensively at the iron gate that will lead them down to the witches’ cell, Rey on the floor of the library, several artful photos of the books in the library, and then several photos of Kylo in the courtroom. They both laugh at the selfie Armitage has taken, the camera angled so that it looks like Kylo and Rey are standing on his shoulders. Kylo smiles at the pictures, despite all that happened yesterday, they did look like they were having fun.

“Here.” Armitage thumbs open the camera app and sets it to the reverse mode. He holds it up so that they are both framed in the shot, looking sleep-rumpled and doe-eyed, and presses the shutter. “I won’t Snap that one.” He turns his head on the pillow, mouth quirking up in a half-smile. “This one will just be ours.” His fingers fly over the screen then Kylo’s phone buzzes as the picture arrives in his email. Armitage rests his phone on his chest and folds his hands over it. “Should we get ready?”

“Sure,” Kylo replies with a yawn as his shuffles into sitting, stretching deeply. Today is going to be a good day, he can feel it.

\----

“Look at this.” Kylo shoves his phone toward Armitage. “We should stop here, pull over!”

“Get the phone out of my face, you maniac, I can’t look at it and drive at the same time.”

Armitage grips the steering wheel tighter as he negotiates the narrow road. Not all of Lancaster’s tiny streets were made to handle cars.

“We need to make a quick stop.” Kylo points across the street and up an even narrower lane. “Pull over there.”

Armitage slaps his hand out of his face as the car careens around the corner Kylo has indicated. He parks behind a black car, the last spot available on the street. He turns to Kylo.

“What are we stopping for, we’re not at the park yet.”

Kylo grins as he throws the door open, heedless of any oncoming traffic. “I just remembered about the Golden Lion.” He says as if that explains everything. 

Leaping out of the car, he opens the back door and grabs his bag as well as Armitage’s. Rey scrambles out after him, camera at the ready. Armitage quickly gets out of the car, accepting his knapsack from Kylo, he slings it over his shoulder and then buttons up his woolen peacoat. The weather had cleared up as they have driven out of Pendle but it was still chilly. Kylo pulls the hood of his green sweatshirt up to protect himself from the nip of the wind.

“Where to, Ky?” Rey asks as she tugs her knitted toque down over her ears. She adjusts her camera on its tripod, focusing on Kylo first before angling the camera down the street.

“This way.”

Kylo leads them down the lane. Armitage hurries to his side and falls into step. He nods to the shabby pub at the end of the street.

“So that’s the Golden Lion? What’s so special about it?”

Kylo tucks a heavy lock of his hair behind his ear and tugs his hood closer. “I totally forgot about it. The Golden Lion is where the Pendle witches were said to have had their last drink on the way to the gallows.”

“That’s grim,” Rey mutters as they cross the street to stand in front of the pub, closed this early in the afternoon. Kylo directs her attention to a brass plaque inset into the wall.

“See, here are all the names of the accused.”

“So,” Armitage looks up the street. “Lancaster Castle is that way-” he points up the street.

“Yeah.”

“And that way is Williamson Park, the erstwhile Gallows Hill.” Armitage gestures in the opposite direction.

“Yes.” Kylo nods vigorously. “They would have been carted from the castle through here for their drink, I guess this was the last pub on the way to the hill, it wasn’t just the Pendle witches either, most prisoners would have been allowed to stop here for one last pint. At least, that’s the local legend.”

“Ugh,” Rey says, looking at the building with a raised eyebrow. “I wonder if it’s haunted as well?”

Kylo gasps excitedly. “I don’t know. We should come back after we’re done in the park though.” He turns to Armitage. “We’ll have time right? What time did you want to be back in Pendle?”

“We can come back,” Armitage confirms. “The park closes at four so we’ll have time.”

They take a last look at the exterior of the pub, reading the plaque one more time. A more somber mood falls over them as Armitage reads the names of the accused witches aloud.

“‘In memory of the Lancashire Witches who were reputed to have taken their last drink here on their way to the gallows, August 21, 1612 - Anne Whittle, Anne Redferne, Elizabeth Device, Alizon Device, James Device, Jane Bulcock, John Bulcock, Alice Nutter, Katherine Hewitt, Isabel Robey, and Elizabeth Southerns who died in Lancaster Prison’.”

“Let’s go,” Kylo says, shivering slightly in the chilly air. “This is giving me the creeps.”

With a last look at the pub and plaque, they head up the street. The park is a pleasant walk up the street and despite the overcast skies, there are quite a few people out enjoying the day. They pass several tourists holding tattered maps or phones following the same path they are, making their way from the castle to Williamson Park. The pavement narrows and Armitage goes ahead, letting Kylo and Rey trail behind. Kylo takes out his phone and snaps a few pictures of Armitage. He can’t help himself, the combination of Armitage’s bright hair and green coat contrasts beautifully with the whitewashed stone wall that borders the sidewalk. Behind him, Rey makes a tsk-ing noise and he turns, guiltily, to look at her over his shoulder.

“What?” He mouths as if he doesn’t know. Rey just shakes her head.

The pavement widens and Armitage waits for them to catch up with him so they can all walk together. They cross the short bridge over the canal and continue on up the street. Armitage pulls up a map of the park on his tablet, he taps a section of the screen as he holds it out for Rey and Kylo to see.

“The exact location of the gallows isn’t known, but most historians think it was here, near the Ashton Memorial.”

“Ugh.” Kylo pulls a face. “Yeah, I guess the town council wouldn’t be rushing to commemorate something like that.”

“I wouldn’t think so,” Rey adds, “they probably don’t want to encourage anything weird, like cult activity, or I don’t know, people conducting rituals. It’s bad enough that ghost hunting shows film there all the time.”

“Oh my God,” Armitage says in horror. “Are we ghost hunters?”

Kylo and Rey burst out laughing at the look of disdain on Armitage’s face. Kylo throws his arm around Armitage’s shoulder and pulls him in for a brief hug. “I hate to break it to you, but yeah, we’re ghost hunters.”

They laugh again as Armitage makes a moue of distaste as they carry on along the street, past shops and homes, eventually turning onto Wyresdale Road which will take them to the park. They reach the edge of the park, denoted by a low stone wall which runs adjacent to the sidewalk. The trees and bushes that ring the park are barren, and through the skeletal branches, they can see into the park proper where the grass is looking decidedly worse for wear after the long winter. Some of the trees have buds on them though, even though the weather is still wintry and cold. They pass through the tall iron gates that mark the entrance to the park and Kylo can’t help the bounce in his step.

“You’re feeling brave at the moment,” Armitage comments dryly.

“Yeah, I do feel better. Maybe it’s because it’s the middle of the day?” Kylo swings around, holding his camera up to frame a shot of Rey and Armitage with the gates looming behind them. “Do you think it’s more or less creepy to see a ghost in the daytime?”

“How would you even know you’ve seen one?” Rey says. “It would have to be a fully-formed full-floating specter, otherwise it’d just look like a shadow or nothing.”

Armitage snorts. “We’re not going to see anything.” He gestures around. “Look how busy it is today, there are tons of people, kids, and dogs in here. We’ll be lucky if we get clear shots of the park, much less any ghosts that happen to wander by.”

“We’ll just see what we see,” Kylo says, feeling emboldened by the bright gray day and the number of people out enjoying the park. The black dog that had plagued them in Pendle probably hadn’t followed them here.

They walk through the park toward the Ashton Memorial with its ostentatious white dome towering over everything. Rey directs them to a small copse of trees off to the side of the memorial. 

“We don’t have a permit to film in here so let’s try to be inconspicuous, okay?”

Armitage glares hard at Kylo upon hearing this while Kylo pretends to be very busy adjusting his camera. 

“No permit, hmm?”

“I remembered all the others,” Kylo mumbles to his camera. “I didn’t even think about the park.”

“It should be fine,” Rey says as she adjusts the microphone on her camera. “We’ll just be low-key about it. We won’t draw much attention, anyway, lots of people have cameras around here today.” She nods in the direction of the people milling around the steps of the monument.

“This is a good spot,” Kylo says. He points down the hill. “Look, you can see the castle from here.”

A fierce gust of wind whips through the trees at that moment, causing the trees to bend and groan from the force, and Kylo jumps.

Armitage lays a steadying hand on his shoulder. “It’s just the wind.”

“I know, I know.” Kylo straightens his jacket, “I immediately lost all the courage I had as soon as the wind hit the trees.” His heart is beating rapidly in his chest and he decides at this moment that he actually hates Lancashire and is never returning once this shoot is over.

“So, we think the gallows was probably somewhere around here.” Armitage glances around. “And all the condemned Pendle witches would have been brought to this spot. It probably looked a lot different in the seventeenth century.”

“Hard to say.” Kylo pushes his hood off and scrubs at his hair, looking around. “I guess there’d be more trees? That temple thing wouldn’t have been here then.” He points at the garish memorial building.

“So, the accused would have been brought up here where they’d be expected to confess their sins to save their souls, but not their lives.” Armitage consults his map again. “They’d probably be buried around here too. In unmarked graves, of course.”

“I read that one of them might have been buried in Pendle though,” Kylo adds.

“Demdike, maybe?” Armitage muses. “She died in prison so maybe, somehow, she was returned to Pendle. But I can’t image how that would have happened, there was no family left after the trial.”

“That could just be a local legend,” Rey says as she tucks wisps of her hair off her face. “Maybe it makes people feel better about what happened if at least one of them was brought home.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Kylo agrees. “It is kind of comforting, I suppose.”

“A cold comfort, though,” Armitage adds as he stows his tablet in his bag. “I wonder if any excavations have been conducted up here? I couldn’t find any mention of archaeological work in my research.”

Kylo shivers. “Maybe it’s better to just leave the dead to themselves.”

“Agreed,” Rey says with a nod. She pauses the recording and glances around the park. “Let’s walk in a circle through these trees surrounding the monument - you said the gallows were somewhere around here. Maybe we’ll get an EVP?”

The weak winter light streaming through the trees is beginning to cast long shadows across the field as the sun begins to set. They would have to leave the park by four o’clock when the gates closed. 

“Good idea.” Kylo agrees. He swings his bag off his shoulder and digs out his EMF reader as well as the spirit box. He pockets the spirit box but hands the EMF reader to Armitage. “We can take some readings too, and maybe use the spirit box.”

They walk slowly around the monument, inscribing a wider and wider path as they move more into the trees. Kylo’s face warms as Armitage links arms with him again. He tries not to read too much into it though since Armitage also gave Rey a one-armed hug when she teased him a few minutes earlier about how serious he looked on camera. But still, it was his hand Armitage was reaching for more often than not.

Around the back of the memorial building, there are fewer people to be seen so Kylo calls for a halt. Armitage hands him the EMF reader and he turns it on, holding it out so they can all see the tiny screen.

“Hmm, it’s spiking again, just like yesterday,” Rey notes, shading the screen with her hand to read the numbers.

“Well,” Kylo looks up, surveying the park, “we’re probably getting too much interference, too many mobile phones - maybe we should try it again tomorrow night.”

Rey looks over her shoulder, the nearest people are a couple girls playing with their dog around by the front steps of the monument. She holds her camera up as she takes a deep breath.

“Is anyone here with us now? Maybe Elizabeth… or Alice?”

The EMF meter spikes again and Kylo twirls his hand, indicating that Rey should continue her line of questioning.

“We’re sorry for what happened to you.”

“Is there anything you’d like to say,” Armitage adds, “we know some of you were wrongfully accused, would you like to set the record straight?”

“Jesus, Armitage, don’t say that!” Kylo whispers, “What if Elizabeth thinks we think she’s guilty?”

“She was guilty!” Armitage hisses back. “She did try to kill those people through witchcraft.”

The spirit box in Kylo’s pocket suddenly roars to life, spitting and hissing as it rapidly cycles through the channels. Kylo quickly tucks the EMF reader away and gingerly removes the angry spirit box from his pocket. He holds it at arm's length.

“What do we do?” He whispers, voice hoarse with fear.

“Turn it off,” Armitage grabs for it. “Why did you even turn it on in the first place?”

“I didn’t,” Kylo says indignantly. “Look.”

He points to the button, firmly in the “Off” position. The three of them exchange worried glances.

Armitage clears his throat. “Ah, who’s there?” Armitage directs his question to the device in his hand, keeping his eyes on Kylo. “My name is Armitage, that’s Kylo and Rey. Who are we speaking too?”

The box sputters and hisses, bits and pieces of words and phrases come through, but mostly it’s just static.

“Will you tell us your name?” Kylo asks. His voice wobbles over the last word.

More hissing and static and then a voice comes through clearly.

“ _Ball._ ”

“Oh, holy fuck.” Kylo gasps. He looks up at Armitage to see the colour draining from his face, eyes wide with fright.

The spirit box snaps off as suddenly as it turned on and they are plunged into silence. Kylo gingerly takes the device from Armitage’s nerveless hand and slides it into his pocket. He then reaches for Armitage’s hand, exhaling gratefully when Armitage’s chilly fingers grip his firmly.

“What?” Rey’s eyes bounce from Kylo’s face to Armitage’s and back. “What is it? What does ‘Ball’ mean?”

“Ball is the name of Elizabeth Device’s familiar that was known to take the shape of a dog,” Kylo whispers, stomach rolling sickly. Armitage squeezes his hand tighter and he looks genuinely scared and that makes all the hair on Kylo’s body stand to attention.

“So?” Rey prods, still concerned.

“We’ve been followed by a large, black dog ever since we arrived in Pendle,” Armitage says faintly. “We’ve seen it three times.”

“Well, shit.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last day of filming in Pendle is upon them but what are Kylo and Armitage to do now that they know what pursues them? What does Ball want? What will he do if he catches them? And how will Armitage react when Kylo finally confesses his feelings for him?

When Kylo wakes up the next morning, he’s greeting with some real, actual sunlight streaming in through the drapes - the first bright sunny day of their time in Pendle. Armitage is curled up beside him, face and body relaxed in sleep. He’s just about sharing Kylo’s pillow, and he’s close, close enough that Kylo can see the delicate spray of freckles across the bridge of his nose.

Armitage’s eyes flutter open. Lying in their cozy, sleep-warm bed, he and Kylo regard each other quietly, not speaking but simply breathing softly in unison. A car rumbles by on the street below their room, a few birds sing in the trees, but most of the sounds are muffled in the quiet of their room. For Kylo, no one else exists in the whole world at this moment but Armitage. 

“Morning,” Armitage whispers with a smile. “So, the dawn of the last day huh?”

“That’s a really dramatic way to put it.” Kylo props his head upon his hand. “I’ll be glad to get out of here, Pendle is fucked up.”

Armitage giggles as he reaches up to tuck Kylo’s loose curls behind his ear. “To be fair, it’s probably no more fucked up than any other part of the country that has a dark and tragic history associated with it. I mean, think of how haunted Towton or the area around Bosworth field must be.”

Kylo hums his agreement, leaning into Armitage’s touch and wishing he could fall upon him and bury his face in Armitage’s neck - all of Armitage’s sharp angles and quick tongue are softened in the morning light, and Kylo wishes he’d let himself be like this more often. He sways closer to Armitage, eyes fixed on his lips. Armitage tips his face up minutely, lips parted in anticipation.

From the bedside table, Kylo’s phone vibrates and buzzes. Kylo hesitates for a moment and in that split second, Armitage flops over on his back, a disappointed smile on his face. Kylo reaches over to slide his hand atop Armitage’s, squeezing briefly in apology. He smiles when he feels Armitage return the squeeze.

Kylo swipes his phone off the bedside table, squinting when the too-bright screen stings his eyes.

“Rey wants to know if we want to go get breakfast.” He doesn’t include the ‘lovebirds’ part of her message, Armitage might laugh but Kylo doesn’t want to ruin this fragile thing that’s developing between them.

“Sure,” Armitage says with a groan as he sits up, stretching his hands toward the ceiling, arching his back to work out the stiffness from a deep sleep. “Can she give us a half hour to get ready?”

“She says that’s fine,” Kylo confirms. “She’s going to skype with Finn, and then call Luke.”

“Okay, we’ll meet her downstairs then.”

Armitage rolls to the side of the bed and lands lightly on his feet. He flings the blankets off the bed so that the chilled air of the room shivers over Kylo’s warm skin. He scrambles out of bed with a yelp, grabbing at the blankets as Armitage flings them away.

“What’d you do that for?” He cries, hauling the blankets back onto the bed. “I could have stayed in bed while you got ready.”

Armitage snorts. “You take longer than I do to get ready, and you know it. You’re so vain about your hair.”

“Am not,” Kylo mutters darkly as Armitage laughs at him. Kylo heaves a pillow in his direction which Armitage deftly evades, skipping out of firing range and dashing into the bathroom.

\----

After breakfast, Armitage insists that they go for a walk around the grounds of St. Mary’s Church. No better place to hide from a demon dog than sanctified ground, Armitage said, and Kylo has to admit, he agrees with that logic.

The three of them stay bunched together like a herd of deer as they wander the small churchyard, not wanting to stray too far from the safety of the others. Several grave markers have been propped up along the curtain wall of the churchyard beneath some skeletal trees. Armitage veers away to take a quick picture.

“That’s a good one.” He shows his screen to Kylo and Rey. “I’m going to Snap that.”

That gives Kylo an idea. “We should have an Instagram for the channel, that way people can see the behind the scenes stuff.”

“We don’t have one?” Armitage whirls on Kylo. “We really should since we always have more photos and footage than can fit in each episode.” He scrolls through his photo gallery, demonstrating how many photos and video he has. “You should start an account tonight when we get back to Shit Towers so we can post a bunch of these.”

“Don’t call it that.” Kylo grits out from between clenched teeth. Armitage grins up at him mischievously.

The beautiful weather has done much to restore their mood - Rey has a bounce in her step although, Kylo figures, that could also be due to her skype call with Finn as much as the weather. The warm sun glints off Armitage’s coppery head and makes his green eyes sparkle - he tips his face to the sky, smiling as he soaks up the sun. He looks back to Kylo, a serene smile on his lips and Kylo can’t help himself, he brushes a lock of Armitage’s soft hair off his face and tucks it behind his ear.

“Armitage.” He slips his hand down to cup Armitage’s cheek. Taking a deep breath, he decides to go all in. “You’re so beautiful.”

Armitage lays his hand over Kylo’s, pressing it to his face. “Kylo.” He leans toward Kylo, eyes calm. Kylo’s heart is racing, he bites his lip and, oh fuck, this is happening. It’s happening right now in front of Rey, the churchyard, the ghosts, and the whole world. He rests his other hand on Armitage’s neck, his thumb brushing carefully over Armitage’s flushed skin. Armitage’s eyes flutter closes as Kylo leans in.

“Hey guys, look! A cat.” Rey calls out. “Oh… sorry.”

Armitage laughs quietly, tucking his face into Kylo’s shoulder, smiling. Kylo glares over Armitage’s head at Rey, who bites her lip and averts her eyes. She looks earnestly sorry to have interrupted them. The orange and white cat she has discovered meows loudly from beside her on the bench.

“It’s okay,” Armitage whispers in his ear. “Tonight, I promise.”

Kyo looks down at him and nods. He brushes his thumb over Armitage’s lips, stomach swooping when Armitage purses his lips to kiss the pad of Kylo’s thumb. 

“Tonight.”

Armitage smiles as he takes Kylo’s arm and leads him over to Rey and the cat. He sits down on the moss-encrusted stone bench beside Rey, Kylo crouches in front of them, reaching up to scritch behind the cat’s ears.

“Sorry.” She says again. “I didn’t realize.”

“It’s fine.” Armitage pulls her into a one-armed hug. “We’ve got time.” 

She smiles at him. “I’m happy for you guys.” Leaning over, she punches Kylo in the arm, the cat _mmrps_ and slinks over to curl up in Armitage’s lap. “Took you long enough.”

“Ow, shit, I know okay?” Kylo grumps, rubbing his shoulder. He rocks back to sit down on the frozen ground. “We can talk about it later, what do we do about Ball?”

“Well, if this thing really is a witches’ familiar, and not a real dog,” Rey says, “what’s he still doing hanging around Pendle?”

“Maybe Elizabeth didn’t get a chance to like, banish him or whatever before she got arrested.” Kylo muses, his fingers drumming idly on Armitage’s knee while he thinks. “Maybe he has the ability to act independently of her?”

Rey shudders at the thought.

“I just think we shouldn’t jump to such an outlandish conclusion so quickly. “ Armitage said, cuddling the cat in his arms. “We don’t have that much proof - we saw a dog, yes, but there are farms all around here and one of them is bound to have a large black dog.”

Kylo harrumphs and opens his mouth to argue but Armitage soothes him with a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“I know you’re going to say ‘what about the spirit box’ but that’s really open for interpretation, you know it doesn’t compel me.” He runs his hand down Kylo’s arm to lace their fingers together. “It’s not exactly proof, is it? And even if it was, what are we supposed to do with it - go to the church and tell the priest we’re being haunted by a ghost dog?” He nods toward the gray stone building.

“Hmm.” Rey taps a thoughtful finger to her lips. She glances at Armitage. “That’s not a bad idea, actually.”

Kylo lurches to his feet, startling the cat. It leaps off Armitage’s lap and dashes toward the vicarage. “Maybe the priest can bless my water bottle, just in case.” 

“I’m already sorry I mentioned this,” Armitage mutters as he allows Kylo to haul him excitedly to his feet and propel him towards the church door. 

Rey just laughs as she falls into step with them.

\----

“‘Do not be afraid’? I’m pretty sure that’s what I’ve been saying all week.” Armitage exhales an annoyed puff of breath, wisps of which swirl around him before dissipating into the evening air.

Kylo grins as he tugs the collar of Armitage’s green peacoat up around his chin and tightens his scarf around his neck. It’s very late in the afternoon and the sun has begun to sink low in the sky, and with it, the temperature. 

“Not that I don’t treasure and adore every word that falls from your mouth,” Kylo grins, gathering Armitage’s hands in his and pressing a light kiss to his knuckles. “Because I do, but the words just seem to have more weight coming from Reverend Hallows.”

“Fine, fine. At least you got your holy water.” Armitage flounces away down the lane toward Rey, who is setting up her camera.

Kylo waves the bottle at Armitage. “You’ll be happy we have it if Ball shows up again.”

“Just keep it at the ready then, and don’t drink it!”

“Alright you two, I think this is good here,” Rey calls as she squints through the viewfinder of her camera, framing them in the shot. Kylo tucks the water bottle into his jacket pocket and gets his camera set up.

After the visit with the vicar, they had piled into Armitage’s car and made slow, meticulous circuits of the lanes around Newchurch, Roughlee, and Barley looking for a suitable place to film. Much of the forests that had blanketed the area in 1612 were now gone, ploughed under for farmland, pastures, and homes. Armitage had wanted to find a location as close to historically accurate as possible, but the area around Colne was much too suburban. Eventually, they settled on a narrow footpath that wandered through a paltry copse of trees, and even Armitage had to admit that it was a decent location - the path is bordered by a low stone wall, crawling with evergreen ivy and bordered by trees on both sides. The other side of the path had a rough row of hedges, tangled and dense, protecting the pasture lands beyond the meager trees from the wind and harsh weather. 

Reverend Hallows advised them that perhaps it was safer to stay close to Pendle and to film in the late afternoon or early twilight, rather than in the dark of the night. Kylo agreed with him, having seen the dog three times already, he wasn’t eager to meet it again on some lonely, darkened path in a remote location. And he was reluctant to put Rey and Armitage in any more danger, as much as the show was important to him, he’d never get over the guilt if something happened to them while filming.

“So, we’re pretty close to the right area where Alizon would have met the pedlar John Law?” Kylo looks over his shoulder back up the path, angling his camera to film the darkening woods. The sun is beginning its slow descent and the sky overhead is a river of orange and red, and the long shadows of the surrounding trees blend into one another.

Armitage strides back to his side, pulling his tablet from his bag. “I think so.” He calls up a map of the area and enlarges it with a graceful flick of his fingers. “Here’s Colne,” he points, “and here’s where we are, and here’s Pendle.”

“So Alizon would have been coming through here,” Kylo points to the map, “and the pedlar was coming up from his direction, here.” He points to another part of the map and Armitage nods.

“She wanted to either buy or beg pins from him.” Armitage does a quick search and finds an image of the type of pins Alizon had requested. He holds the tablet up for Rey to see as well. “It was well-known that pins were used for magical purposes and healing, and they were expensive-”

“But Law tells her to get lost and he keeps going.” Kylo frowns, “That’s kind of rude.”

“And fatal, for him,” Armitage adds. “Because that’s when Alizon cursed him and he collapsed.”

Armitage looks up at Kylo, eyes gleaming in the twilight, the setting sun making his red hair blaze, a grim smile on his face. Kylo squeezes his shoulder.

“Do we know what she said?” Kylo asks. “Why would she do that, given the fear of witches that was so common at the time?”

Armitage leans into Kylo’s shoulder as he scrolls through his notes. “There’s no record of what she said. Maybe she didn’t think her curse would have any effect. I mean, it was probably a regular occurrence for her, to be out begging and be rudely dismissed like that, she probably cursed people all the time.”

Kylo makes a thoughtful hum in his throat as he turns them to lead them along the footpath. He releases Armitage's hand to adjust the focus on his camera. “But this time, the curse worked and the pedlar collapsed from what? Shock?”

“Oh, we actually have a detailed description of that!” Armitage consults his tablet again, quickly scrolling through his notes. “The court clerk records that ‘His face was drawn awry, eyes and face deformed, his speech not well to be understood, arms lame especially the left side’. So that means-”

“He had a stroke.” Rey cuts in, peering around her camera.

Armitage nods, eyes flicking over to her. “Sounds like it, right?”

Their conversation is suddenly interrupted by the croak of a raven from a branch overhead. Kylo glances at it uneasily. It squawks at them a few times then bursts from the trees and glides away down the path. 

“Armitage,” Kylo whispers nervously, “the raven is back.”

Armitage slides his hand onto the small of Kylo’s back to urge him to keep walking but Kylo resists slightly, not wanting to follow the raven along the path. “Okay,” he breathes softly, soothingly, “Let’s not panic. It’s probably just an ordinary raven.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

“We’ve only got a little bit of filming left to do and then we can go back to the room.” Armitage lets his hand fall away as he steps around Kylo to head up the path. “In your own time.” He smiles reassuringly as he steps away.

Rey follows, giving him an odd look as she passes at a more sedate pace to keep the camera steady. Kylo turns to glance over his shoulder down the path, still illuminated by the setting sun. The last bit of light is fading from the sky, ahead of them the sky is a velvety blue with only the first suggestions of stars flickering overhead. Behind them, the sky is still brilliantly bright as the sun sinks behind Pendle Hill. The raven burbles at him again as it soars closer to land on a branch above him.

He cocks his head to the side as he regards the raven, smiling as it mimics his head tilt. Maybe Armitage was right, it was just an ordinary raven. He takes a step toward Rey and Armitage when the raven begins to squawk furiously - it hops and dances on the branch and puffs its feathers up defensively. A low growl ripples up the path from behind Kylo, accompanied by the soft scrabble of footsteps over the gravel.

“Do not be afraid, do not be afraid.” Kylo chants to himself as he turns, by infinitesimal increments, to look over his shoulder.

He sucks in a breath as he sees the horrifying silhouette of the huge black dog - Ball - backlit by the dying rays of the setting sun. They stand suspended in time for what feels like an eternity to Kylo, staring each other down until Ball snarls, deep and menacing, and launches himself forward. The dog gallops toward Kylo with frightening speed, long legs easily eating up the distance between them. Kylo stands, frozen, camera held loosely in his hand, as he watches Ball’s approach. He’s finally roused from his trance when the raven divebombs him, dark wings buffeting his head, and this spurs Kylo into movement. He turns, feeling as if he’s underwater, and hares up the path.

“Armitage! Rey! Run, for the love of fuck, _run_!”

Rey and Armitage turn in unison and seeing him bolting toward them, Rey’s eyes grow wide as dinner plates and Armitage’s mouth falls open. Kylo waves his hands as he sprints toward them, Ball hard upon his heels. Kylo catches up with Rey and grabbing her elbow, they race along the path toward Armitage, who is a little further ahead. She veers off to duck into a thicket of bushes as Kylo flies after Armitage.

Above him, the raven speeds along, keeping pace and cawing frantically as if urging them on fast and faster. Ball tears along behind them, footfalls like thunder in the quiet night, and Kylo sobs as Ball howls, closer than he realizes. In a burst of speed, Ball sails by him, plumy tail flying like a flag behind him as he darts toward Armitage.

“Armitage, keep running.” Kylo pants as he now pursues Ball down the path. Armitage’s long legs help him fly effortlessly but as fleet as he is, even he can’t outrun the nightmare creature.

Kylo cries out as Ball launches himself forward, hind legs bunching underneath him as he leaps, and Armitage stumbles and falls heavily to the ground as the dog pounces at him. Ball lands lightly and continues charging along the path and with a flick of his tail, he vanishes, only the echoes of his fearsome howling reverberating in the night. Kylo’s eyes are streaming by the time he falls to his knees beside Armitage, who has pushed himself up to a sitting position. Kylo throws his arms around Armitage and drags him closer, pulling him tightly to his chest. Armitage’s hands slip around his back and grab onto his jacket fiercely as he buries his face in the curve of Kylo’s neck.

Kylo cups Armitage's face in his hands, leaning back so he can examine him. “Armitage, oh fuck, are you alright? Are you hurt?” He presses urgent kisses to Armitage’s chilled lips.

“I’m fine.” He mumbles against Kylo’s mouth. “I’m fine.” He buries his face against Kylo’s chest, huddling into the circle of his arms.

Rey flings herself down beside them, panting frantically. Kylo gathers her into the safety his arms as well, and Armitage slips an arm around her waist, and the three of them stay wrapped together on the path, holding tightly onto each other.

“Oh my god, Armitage,” Rey says, voice tight and high. “That dog… that dog jumped for you, are you hurt?”

“I’m okay.” His voice is muffled by Kylo’s jacket, “it didn’t touch me. I fell and it felt like it, sort of, passed through me, I don’t know. It was like a burst of freezing cold air hit me, I can’t explain it better than that, and then it was galloping away.”

“Let’s get out of here.” Kylo rasps, his throat burning from panic. “Can you walk?”

“Of course I can walk.” Armitage allows Kylo to haul him to his feet.

They gather up their discarded equipment then hurry along the path, now fully painted in blue-black darkness, back to the car. Kylo keeps his arms firmly around Armitage’s waist and Rey’s shoulders, keeping them close. Overhead, the raven glides along, keeping them company and guiding them out of the small copse of trees. As they break through the barren trees to the car, the raven wheels away and vanishes into the night.

Armitage shakes off Kylo’s offer to drive but as they fling themselves into the car, Armitage reaches for Kylo’s hand and doesn’t let go as he starts the car and peels away from the side of the road in a spray of gravel.

\----

After Rey assures them several times that she’s fine and doesn’t need to spend the night in their room, Armitage takes Kylo’s hand and leads him up to their attic room. They get ready for bed in near silence, Kylo murmuring after Armitage’s well-being from time to time. Armitage decides to forgo his usual shower before bed and they stand close together in the small bathroom taking care of their nighttime routines, Armitage looking thoughtful and determined, Kylo glancing worriedly at him time to time.

Kylo gets into bed first, Armitage follows after a minute, clicking off the light in the bathroom. He crawls into bed and inserts himself directly into Kylo’s arms, tangling their legs together, and pressing as close as he can. Kylo nuzzles into Armitage’s hair which still smells like the outside air - smoky like a wood fire - and presses a soft kiss to his forehead. Armitage tips his face up, his lips parted and Kylo can’t resist. He presses a tender kiss to Armitage’s lips, then another. Armitage wraps himself snugly around Kylo, sighing as he parts his lips to allow Kylo in.

“I can’t believe it took being chased by a ghost dog to get you to kiss me.” Armitage nips at Kylo’s mouth as he smiles.

Kylo snorts as he pushes Armitage back into the mound of pillows. “It’s not my fault you’re so hard to read.” He pauses and looks down at Armitage, brows drawn together with concern. “You’re sure you’re alright?”

Armitage nods as he sprawls back on the bed, letting his legs part enough for Kylo to wiggle his way between them. He winds his hands into Kylo’s hair and guides him down for another kiss.

“I’m fine, I promise.” Armitage nuzzles around Kylo’s ear, pressing soft kisses there. “The dog didn’t hurt me, and we’ve just proven the existence of ghosts - we’re going to be so famous.”

Armitage grins as Kylo buries his face in his neck and laughs.

“I’m surprised you’d compromise your integrity like that.”

Armitage giggles softly. “I’ve only ever been compromised by you, love, now kiss me, will you? I’ve waited long enough.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the investigation over and the four videos ready to be uploaded to the channel, Kylo is able to take a moment and reflect back on the strange and mysterious events in Pendle. What was Ball's ultimate motive? Are other people aware of his existence? And how are their subscribers going to react to Kylo and Armitage's new relationship status? The comment section has a lot to say on that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *cries* I can't believe the story is complete! Thank you for reading and being terrified along with Kylo each week, I'm over the moon at the reception the story has received. If anyone wants to know more about the Pendle witches, I can provide my bibliography, or if there are any questions, just let me know! Thanks for reading :)

SuperbOwl 2 minutes ago  
I FUCKWN KNEW IT #kylux4evr

GodofHammers 5 minutes ago  
Maybe Armitage will finally believe ghosts are real #londonbelow #kylux4evr

BrooklynBabe 5 minutes ago  
I was going to try to write down the timestamps for every time they hold hands, but it’s literally like every minute of the episode so maybe, just watch the whole thing! #londonbelow #kylux #cries

Kylo pulls a sour face halfway between a smile and a grimace at the laptop screen. The subscribers of their channel have always been supportive but now they’re insufferable, crowing about how they were right all along about Kylo and his crush on Armitage. It was bad enough that he had to endure Rey’s teasing about it, as well as his parents cooing over them, but now there’s the endless scroll of excited comments in the channel’s feed.

Editing the videos was a mortifying experience. He and Rey had spent two weeks editing the footage from their three cameras into the four episodes and he had almost died of embarrassment every single second of the editing process. There was no way to hide it, he looked absolutely smitten and lovesick in every single shot.

“You guys held hands a lot for two people who were supposedly not together.” Rey had observed.

Kylo had nothing to say in his defense - they really had held hands a lot. He was slightly mollified by the fact that it was more often than not Armitage was the one reaching out.

Once the rough editing was done, he and Armitage did a couple sessions to record the voice-overs, which was always Armitage’s favourite part because he got a chance to be even more of a know-it-all than he was on camera. Armitage had watched the four episodes, including all the hand-holding and smitten looks, but had said nothing about it and so Kylo assumed that meant he was okay with whatever editing decisions he and Rey had made.

KatieB 10 minutes ago  
Kylo should wear a heart monitor #kylux4evr #londonbelow #pendlewitches

FlowerGirl 11 minutes ago  
Did you see the part where they held hands???? Kylo was shook #kylux4evr

WereAllMadHere 2 minutes ago  
alskfjlkajsfdlkj!!?!?!?!?!?! #kylux4evr #ilovethem

Kylo sighs as he scrolls through the pages and pages of comments. At least people are watching the videos, he supposes. There were so many comments and questions, they were probably going to have to film some sort of question and answer companion video as well. As Kylo scrolls through comment after comment, his sour expression softens into a smile - amongst the congratulatory posts, snide comments about fakery, and some truly remarkable fan art are comments of genuine concern and affection.

A majority of the questions and concerns have to do with Armitage and whether or not he has suffered any afflictions as a result of his dance with the devil dog Ball and while Kylo had kept a watchful eye on him in the days and weeks after Pendle, he seems to have suffered no ill-effects, much to Kylo’s relief.

Indeed, they were curiously unimpeded after that final night. There had been no further sightings of the odd raven, saw neither hide nor hair of Ball; although, Kylo was positive he saw a slinking shadow in one of the fields as they departed Newchurch at Pendle the morning after. But then again, it could have been a trick of the light or some farmer’s wayward sheepdog.

Armitage, in his endearingly fussy, inquisitive manner, had scoured the library and the chat boards for anyone having similar encounters with Ball but his search had been for naught. All his inquiries and postings on social media turned up empty and, in the end, all they were left with were their speculations. Of all the theories bandied about, the one that the three of them could all agree on was that in some odd way, Ball was still carrying on with his duty to protect his mistress, Elizabeth Device, and her family. And even though the week had been nothing short of terrifying for Kylo, he found that theory surprisingly charming and comforting because, after all, he himself would do anything to keep Armitage and Rey from harm.

As Kylo makes a note to check with Rey and Armitage about filming a follow-up, the front door opens and closes with a quiet click announcing Armitage’s arrival home. A few seconds later, he swans through the door of the parlour, smiling softly as his eyes land on Kylo at the laptop. He drops his messenger bag and coat carelessly on the sofa before perching lightly in Kylo’s lap. He slings his arms around Kylo’s neck as he gazes fondly down at him.

“Hello, love.” He plants a smiling kiss to Kylo’s lips. “I assume the last video just went live a half hour ago, my phone suddenly blew up as I was leaving campus.”

Kylo settles Armitage more firmly on his knee. “Yeah, I posted it a little while ago. People seem to like it though.”

“Hmm, good.” Armitage leans down for another kiss, pressing his tongue into Kylo’s willing mouth. “Maybe for the next video,” he says as he lips at Kylo’s plump bottom lip, “we can ghost-bust one of the pubs in town? There would be far fewer demon dogs to contend with and much more free gin.”

Kylo hums in agreement as he kisses his way down the elegant column of Armitage’s neck. Armitage cups his face, bringing him up for another kiss.

“Can you do that thing with your tongue again?” Kylo mumbles against Armitage’s smiling mouth.

Armitage huffs a breathy laugh as he presses closer. “You mean this thing?”

He then proceeds to press back into Kylo’s mouth and roll his tongue in a way that causes a shiver to jolt down Kylo’s spine and his toes to curl in his shoes. Kylo groans as he pulls Armitage closer, hands tight upon his hips. Armitage breaks off the kiss with a breathless groan and presses his forehead against Kylo’s.

“Take me to bed would you?” Armitage purrs. “We’ve got some time before that party tonight.”

Kylo nods feverishly as he grips Armitage firmly under his thighs and gathers him into his arms to lurch to his feet. “You always have the best ideas, babe.”

Armitage squeaks as Kylo knocks the chair back as he stands. He nips and nuzzles at Kylo’s ear as they make their way to the bedroom. Kylo leaves the laptop open, the comment section of their latest upload steadily scrolling on the screen.

ReyofLight 15 minutes ago  
You guys think it’s bad watching it, you should have seen them in person! #kyluxforever #ilovethemtoo #londonbelow #neilgaimanpleasedontsue #ghostdogsforthewin


End file.
